The device-mode is a feature which sets specific limitations on a device, or limits access to specific configuration options.
There are two available modes: enterprise and home. By default, all devices use the mode enterprise, which allows all functionality except container. The home mode disables the following features: scheduler, socks, fetch, bandwidth-test, traffic-gen, sniffer, romon, proxy, hotspot, email, zerotier, container.
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/print mode: enterprise
The device mode can be changed by the user, but remote access to the device is not enough to change it. After changing the device-mode, you need to confirm it, by pressing a button on the device itself, or perform a "cold reboot" - that is, unplug the power:
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/update mode=home
update: please activate by turning power off or pressing reset or mode button
in 5m00s
-- [Q quit|D dump|C-z pause]
If no power off or button press is performed within the specified time, the mode change is canceled. If another update command is run in parallel, both will be canceled.
The following commands are available in the system/device-mode/ menu:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
get | Returns value that you can assign to variable or print on the screen. |
| Shows the active mode and its properties. | |
| update | Applies changes to the specified properties, see below. |
List of available properties
Property | Description |
|---|---|
| container, fetch, scheduler, traffic-gen, ipsec, pptp, smb, l2tp, proxy, sniffer, zerotier, bandwidth-test, email, hotspot, romon, socks. (yes | no; Default: yes, for enterprise mode) | The list of available features, which can be controlled with the device-mode option. |
| activation-timeout (default: 5m); | The reset button or power off activation timeout can be set in range 00:00:10 .. 1d00:00:00. If the reset button is not pressed (or cold reboot is not performed) during this interval, the update will be canceled. |
| flagging-enabled (yes | no; Default: yes) | Enable or disable the flagged status. See below for a detailed description. |
| flagged (yes | no; Default: no) | RouterOS employs various mechanisms to detect tampering with it's system files. If the system has detected unauthorized access to RouterOS, the status "flagged" is set to yes. If "flagged" is set to yes, for your safety, certain limitations are put in place. See below chapter for more information. |
| mode: (home, enterprise; default: enterprise); | Allows choosing from available modes that will limit device functionality. In the future, various modes could be added. By default, enterprise mode allows all options except container. So to use the container feature, you will need to turn it on by performing a device-mode update. By default, home mode disables the following features: scheduler, socks, fetch, bandwidth-test, traffic-gen, sniffer, romon, proxy, hotspot, email, zerotier, container. |
More specific control over the available features is possible. Each of the features controlled by device-mode can be specifically turned on or off, for example:
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/update mode=home email=yes [admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/update mode=enterprise zerotier=no
If the update command specifies any of the mode parameters, this update replaces the entire device-mode configuration. In this case, all "per-feature" settings will be lost, except those specified with this command. For instance:
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/update mode=home email=yes fetch=yes
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/print
mode: home
fetch: yes
email: yes
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/update mode=enterprise sniffer=no
-- reboot --
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/print
mode: enterprise
sniffer: no
We see that fetch = yes and email = yes is missing, as they were overriden with the mode change. However, specifying only "per-feature" settings will change only those:
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/update hotspot=no
-- reboot --
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/print
mode: enterprise
sniffer: no
hotspot: no
If the feature is disabled, an error message is displayed for interactive commands:
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/print
mode: enterprise
sniffer: no
hotspot: no
[admin@MikroTik] > tool/sniffer/quick
failure: not allowed by device-mode
However, it is possible to add the configuration to a disabled feature, but there will be a comment showing the disabled feature in the device-mode:
[admin@MikroTik] > ip hotspot/add interface=ether1 [admin@MikroTik] > ip hotspot/print Flags: X, S - HTTPS Columns: NAME, INTERFACE, PROFILE, IDLE-TIMEOUT # NAME INTERFACE PROFILE IDLE-TIMEOUT ;;; inactivated, not allowed by device-mode 0 X hotspot1 ether1 default 5m
Flagged status
Along with the device-mode feature, RouterOS now can analyse the whole configuration at system startup, to determine if there are any signs of unauthorized access to your router. If suspicious configuration is detected, the suspicious configuration will be disabled and the flagged parameter will be set to "yes". The device has now a Flagged state and enforces certain limitations.
[admin@MikroTik] > system/device-mode/print
mode: enterprise
flagged: yes
sniffer: no
hotspot: no
If the system has this flagged status, the current configuration works, but it is not possible to perform the following actions:
bandwidth-test, traffic-generator, sniffer, as well as configuration actions that enable or create new configuration entries (it will still be possible to disable or delete them) for the following programs: system scheduler, SOCKS proxy, pptp, l2tp, ipsec, proxy, smb.
When performing the aforementioned actions while the router has the flagged state, you will receive an error message:
[admin@MikroTik] > /tool sniffer/quick failure: configuration flagged, check all router configuration for unauthorized changes and update device-mode [admin@MikroTik] > /int l2tp-client/add connect-to=1.1.1.1 user=user failure: configuration flagged, check all router configuration for unauthorized changes and update device-mode
To exit the flagged state, you must perform the command "/system/device-mode/update flagged=no"