If the service password-encryption command is removed, will currently encrypted passwords be decrypted?

When the service password-encryption command is removed from a Cisco device, the currently encrypted passwords will not be decrypted. The passwords remain encrypted regardless of the command's status. The encryption applied by the service password-encryption command is a one-way process, meaning that once passwords are encrypted, they cannot simply be reversed or decrypted by removing the command.

This command provides a level of security by obscuring passwords in the device's configuration files, but it does not offer strong encryption; rather, it applies a basic type of encryption that merely obfuscates the text. Therefore, even after the command is removed, any currently encrypted passwords will still appear as encrypted and will not be converted back to their original, plain-text form.

The factors influencing the options relate to how Cisco devices handle password encryption. Temporary passwords and weak passwords do not apply in this context since the behavior remains consistent across all passwords that were encrypted while the command was in effect. Therefore, regardless of their category, they will not be decrypted merely by altering the command settings.