Cisco never claimed it was for support use. It was more than some support techs knew about the back door, and were using it unofficially for their own convenien

Cisco never claimed it was for support use. It was more than some support techs knew about the back door, and were using it unofficially for their own convenience. The official statement, if I remember correctly, was brief, vaguely worded, and amount to: "We can't say anything, every US vendor is in the same boat as us, stop asking".