Access control

You can use the ua attribute to control user access to menu items on the user interface. The ua attribute is attached to each parameters in the configuration file. See the following sections for the details.

The Cisco IP Phone firmware provides specific administrator and user accounts. These accounts provide specific login privileges. The administrator account name is admin; the user account name is user. These account names cannot be changed.

The admin account gives the service provider or Value-added Reseller (VAR) configuration access to the phone. The user account gives limited and configurable control to the device end user.

The user and admin accounts can be password protected independently. If the service provider sets an administrator account password, you are prompted for it when you click Admin Login. If the password does not yet exist, the screen refreshes and displays the administration parameters. No default passwords are assigned to either the administrator or the user account. Only the administrator account can assign or change passwords.

The administrator account can view and modify all web profile parameters, including web parameters, that are available to the user login. The phone system administrator can further restrict the parameters that a user account can view and modify through use of a provisioning profile.

Configuration parameters that are available to the user account are configurable on the phone. User access to the phone web user interface can be disabled.

The user access (ua) attribute controls may be used to change access by the User account. If the ua attribute is not specified, the existing user access setting is retained. This attribute does not affect access by the Admin account.

The ua attribute, if present, must have one of the following values:

  • na—No access

  • ro—Read-only

  • rw—Read and write

  • y—Preserve value

    The y value must be used together with na, ro, or rw.

The following example illustrates the ua attribute. Notice in the last line that the ua attribute is updated to rw, and the station name field (Travel Agent 1) is preserved. If y is not included, Travel Agent 1 is overwritten:

<flat-profile>
			<SIP_TOS_DiffServ_Value_1_ ua=”na”/>
 		<Dial_Plan_1_ ua=”ro”/>	
			<Dial_Plan_2_ ua=”rw”/>
<Station_Name ua=“rw” preserve-value="y">Travel Agent 1</Station_Name></flat-profile>

Double quotes must enclose the value of the ua option.

The user-pref attribute allows you to set some user preferred value to provide a seamless experience for your user. Users can make further changes from the phone or from the phone administration web page. Any parameter changed by user is marked as user modified with an attribute um. Any changes made by the user are preserved. The user-pref attribute can be updated during provisioning using XML configurations delivered with the Profile Rule parameter.

The user-pref attribute is not mandatory. However, if present, must have one of the following values:

y—Indicates to honor the user-made changes to be included during the configuration. It also specifies to set the value set by the administrator if the user has not modified it.

n—Indicates to honor the administrator set value provided through XML configurations. If the user-pref attribute is not included, it has the same effect as setting its value to "n".

The following example illustrates the user-pref attribute:

<flat-profile>
	<Display_Brightness ua="rw" user-pref="y">5</Display_Brightness>
</flat-profile>
If the user modifies the value, the change is tracked as um ="y". The um attribute cannot be updated by provisioning using um, and it is visible in the XML configurations pulled from the phone.

The following example illustrates the um attribute.

<flat-profile>
	<Display_Brightness ua="rw" user-pref="y" um="y">5</Display_Brightness>
</flat-profile>

Factory reset clears all the configurations marked with um and user-pref attributes.

During provisioning, for any parameter, if the attribute user-pref=“n” is added, after you apply the configuration, the parameter’s attribute user-pref is updated to “n”, and the um attribute gets cleared.

The phone firmware provides mechanisms for restricting end-user access to some parameters. The firmware provides specific privileges for sign-in to an Admin account or a User account. Each can be independently password-protected.

  • Admin account–Allows the full access to all administration web server parameters

  • User account–Allows the access to a subset of the administration web server parameters

If your service provider has disabled access to the configuration utility, contact the service provider before proceeding.

1

Ensure that the computer can communicate with the phone. No VPN in use.

2

Enter the IP address of the phone in your web browser address bar.

  • User Access: http://<ip address>
  • Admin Access: http://<ip address>/admin/advanced
  • Admin Access: http://<ip address>, click Admin Login and click advanced

For example, http://10.64.84.147/admin

3

Enter the password when prompted.

You can bypass the phone Set password screen on the first boot or after a factory reset, based on these provisioning actions:

  • DHCP configuration

  • EDOS configuration

  • User password configuration using in the phone XML configuration file

After the User Password is configured, the set password screen doesn't appear.

1

Edit the phone cfg.xml file in a text or XML editor.

2

Insert the <User_Password> tag using one of these options.

  • No password (start and end tag)<User_Password></User_Password>
  • Password value (4-127 characters)<User_Password >Abc123</User_Password>
  • No password (start tag only)<User_Password />
3

Save the changes to the cfg.xml file.

The Set password screen doesn't appear on the first boot or after a factory reset. If a password is specified, the user is prompted to enter the password when accessing the phone web interface or the phone screen menus.

You can configure the phone to allow or block access to the configuration parameters on the phone web page or the phone screen. The parameters for access control allow you to:

  • Indicate which configuration parameters are available to the user account when creating the configuration.

  • Enable or disable the access to the administration web server.

  • Enable or disable user access to the phone screen menus.

  • Bypass the Set password screen for the user.

  • Restrict the Internet domains that the phone accesses for resync, upgrades, or SIP registration for Line 1.

You can also configure the parameters in the phone configuration file with XML(cfg.xml) code. To configure each parameter, see the syntax of the string in the following table of Access control parameters.

1

Access the phone administration web page.

2

Click Voice > System.

3

In the System Configuration section, configure the parameters as defined in the following table of Access control parameters.

4

Click Submit All Changes to apply the changes.

The following table defines the function and usage of the access control parameters in the System Configuration section under the Voice > System tab in the phone web interface. It also defines the syntax of the string that is added in the phone configuration file (cfg.xml) with XML code to configure a parameter.

Table 1. Access control parameters

Parameter Name

Description and Default Value

Enable Web Server

Enables or disables access to the phone web interface. Set this parameter to Yes to allow users or administrators to access the phone web interface. Otherwise, set it to No. When set to No, the phone web interface isn't accessible.

Perform one of the following:

  • In the phone configuration file with XML(cfg.xml), enter a string in this format:

    <Enable_Web_Server ua="na">Yes</Enable_Web_Server>
  • In the phone web interface, set to Yes to allow the access.

Allowed values: Yes|No

Default: Yes.

Enable Web Admin Access

Allows or blocks the access to the phone administration pages:

http://<phone_IP>/admin

When set to No, the web page for administrator is inaccessible. Only the web page for user is accessible.

If you want to allow the access to the administration web page again after the access is blocked, you need to perform a factory reset from the phone.

Perform one of the following:

  • In the phone configuration file with XML(cfg.xml), enter a string in this format:

    <Enable_Web_Admin_Access ua="na">Yes</Enable_Web_Admin_Access>
  • In the phone web interface, set this parameter to Yes to allow the access. Otherwise, set it to No.

Allowed values: Yes|No

Default: Yes

Admin Password

Allows you to set or change the password for accessing the phone administration web pages.

The Admin Password parameter is only available on the phone administration web page.

A valid password must contain 4 to 127 characters from three out of the four types: capital letter, small letter, number, and special character.

The password is set to empty after you perform a phone factory reset.

Perform one of the following:

  • In the phone configuration file with XML(cfg.xml), enter a string in this format: <Admin_Password ua="na">P0ssw0rd_tes89</Admin_Password>

  • In the phone web interface, enter the password for administrator access.

Default: Empty

User Password

Allows you or the phone user to set or change the password for accessing the phone web interfaces and the menus on the phone screen.

A valid password must contain 4 to 127 characters from three out of the four types: capital letter, small letter, number, and special character.

The password is set to empty after you perform a phone factory reset.

In the configuration file (cfg.xml), you can use the User_Password parameter to bypass the Set password screen that prompts on the first boot or after a factory reset. For more information, see Bypass the set password screen.

Default: Empty

Display Password Warnings

Determines whether to display the No password provided warning when the user or admin password is empty. Typically, the warning message displays on the phone Issues and diagnostics menu and on the phone web page.

The warning message disappears when both user password and admin password are set.

If Enable Web Admin Access is set to No, the password warning doesn't display on the phone screen.

Perform one of the following:

  • In the phone configuration file with XML(cfg.xml), enter a string in this format:

    <Display_Password_Warnings ua="na">Yes</Display_Password_Warnings>
  • In the phone web interface, set to Yes to display the warning, set to No to hide the warning.

Allowed values: Yes|No

Default: Yes