Secure access recovery to a network device includes encrypting a user password into an encrypted target password using a secret regenerative key, and adding a one-time password seed and the encrypted target password into a secure recovery container, which is stored securely in the network device and a trusted recovery device. In response to a recovery request, a one-time password can be generated using the one-time password seed to retrieve the encrypted target password from the recovery device. A decrypted recovery password is generated based on executing decryption on an input string based on the secret regenerative key. The encrypted target password, retrieved from the secure recovery container in the network device, is decrypted into a decrypted target password based on the secret regenerative key. Secure access is recovered in response to determining the decrypted recovery password matches at least a part of the decrypted target password.