Difference between User Mode and Privileged Mode in Cisco Router

A router is a layer 3 device used to forward packets from one network to another. It forwards the packet through one of its ports on the basis of destination IP address and the entry in the routing table. By using a routing table, it finds an optimized path between the source and destination network. 

In this article we will see difference between User Mode and Privileged Mode of Cisco Router.

User Mode:

User Mode allows an admin to have access to some monitoring commands only. For example- The ping command. It is just used to view the configurations of the router. The user mode is a normal mode that has a limited capacity to allow the commands. This user mode is the mode when the operating system is running and the user uses an application such as Google Chrome etc. the transition occurs when the user mode sends the request to help the operating system to the privileged or kernel mode. The mode has a 1 bit in user mode.

Privileged Mode:

Privileged Mode is a password-protected mode that can be only accessed by password-protected authorized users and they have the ability to configure all the commands and manage the router. The system is started in the kernel mode and boots and after that, the operating system is loaded which executes applications in a user mode. Privileged executes on a privilege level. It is also known as master mode and system mode. The process has unrestricted access to the software such as hardware, software, etc. So,  it is also known as kernel mode. Privileged mode is an authority to perform the functions on a computer system. It allows a user to perform the actions in a security consequence. 

S.No.	User Mode	Privileged Mode
1.	User Mode allows the user to have access to some particular monitoring commands.	Privileged Mode is a password-protected mode that can be only accessed by the authorized user and configured with all the commands.
2.	It allows users only to view the configurations.	It allows user commands to view all the configurations and can edit some less important configurations too.
3.	User Mode allows to enable mode, display the data, and the users, and can perform certain networking tasks.	Privileged Mode allows to display, modify and also delete the information and can change the features also.
4.	In User Mode, a user has, access to several commands like the Ping command.	In Privileged Mode a user can access all the configuration commands such as Show Running Configuration configured, Show IP Interface, etc.
5.	Users cannot ping other devices from the User Mode.	Users can ping other devices in the Privileged Mode.
6.	Limited to an array of show commands.	Not a limited array of show commands.

For more details of Router modes please refer Cisco Router Modes article.