Hikvision Default Password and Camera Login

Finding the camera first

A factory Hikvision camera uses the static address 192.168.1.64. If your network runs a different subnet, the camera is invisible until you either change your computer's address or use Hikvision's SADP tool, which finds devices by MAC regardless of subnet. NVRs default to 192.168.1.64 as well, which makes a two-device setup collide immediately — change one before connecting both.

Activation replaced the default password

Hikvision removed factory passwords in firmware released from roughly mid-2015 onward, after the well-publicised wave of compromised cameras. Since then a device arrives in inactive state: SADP or the web interface demands that you set an admin password of at least eight characters before anything else works.

So the classic admin / 12345 pair is genuine — but only for hardware old enough to predate that change. On anything recent it does not fail because you typed it wrong; it fails because no such password ever existed on that unit.

Resetting a forgotten password

There is no reset pinhole that restores a known default. Hikvision's recovery path runs through the manufacturer: export the device's XML file from SADP, send it to Hikvision support or an authorised dealer, and receive a time-limited unlock code back. Some older models accept a GUID file or a set of security questions instead.

This is deliberate. It means a stolen camera cannot be trivially repurposed — and it also means an undocumented camera on an inherited network is genuinely hard to recover.

Security posture

Hikvision devices carry a substantial CVE history, including a critical command-injection flaw affecting a broad range of firmware. Cameras are frequently exposed directly to the internet through port forwarding, which turns any unpatched vulnerability into a public one. Check the model's CVE list below before exposing anything.