Are there any Rar password crackers

sonambulo

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2004
4,777
1
0
I found a handful of old files on one of my old externals and I would like to have them back. Unfortunately I forgot the password a loooooong time ago. Am I out of luck?
 

schneiderguy

Lifer
Jun 26, 2006
10,801
91
91
If your password is more than 5-6 characters it will take a really long time (weeks/months/years) to crack. Assuming the password could be letters or numbers you're looking at 36^(password length) number of combinations.

I haven't used any of the .rar password crackers, so I can't help you there

You could try creating a .rar file with a password that's 2 or 3 characters long and try one of the free ones to see if it can crack it.
 

chronodekar

Senior member
Nov 2, 2008
721
1
0
You are not going to like hearing this, but, schneiderguy has mentioned your biggest problem. Time. Depending on your system, this is going to take a while.

Now, if it were a .zip file, it would be a different matter altogether. This is because, for a .zip file, they store the password itself somewhere in the file itself. So, using a hex editor or the like, you'll be able to get to it.

Good luck recovering that data ! :thumbsup:
 

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,884
526
126
Originally posted by: chronodekar
Now, if it were a .zip file, it would be a different matter altogether. This is because, for a .zip file, they store the password itself somewhere in the file itself. So, using a hex editor or the like, you'll be able to get to it.
OK, here you go:

http://s89934018.onlinehome.us/crackme.zip (100KB)

That was created with an eight year-old version of WinZip. $20.00 says you can't get me the password within 72 hours. I'll even help you out. Password is fewer than 12 alpha-numeric characters, no special characters. I kept the file size smallish enough to manage.
 

chronodekar

Senior member
Nov 2, 2008
721
1
0
Now this is unexpected. :shocked:

But, I like the challenge. :D I'll give it a go and report back.

For the record, I've never cracked a .zip file YET. But I'm certainly going to try NOW !!!
 

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
16,240
7
76
Originally posted by: sonambulo
Oh twell. Thanks for the help guys.

Yeah its a lost cause without serious cpu power.
From the winrar help file:
Q: I forgot my password, please help me!

A: WinRAR encryption does not have any backdoors. Even if we forget a password to any of our archives, we will not be able to restore it. So please do not ask us to help in this situation.

 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,660
762
126
This was actually done last summer on another forum I go to. It was a backup rar containing content for some old mod, and the creator couldn't remember the password. I don't remember how long the password was, but it took them about three weeks of collective brute forcing to find it.
 

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,884
526
126
Originally posted by: sciwizam
^^^ Nice read. It was brute force + optimizations. The password was 8 char. long.
And fairly weak, all lower case letters and one number.
 

chronodekar

Senior member
Nov 2, 2008
721
1
0
Originally posted by: tcsenter
We've passed the 72 hour mark.

I'll have to concede. zip passwords are a lot more effective than I thought. I'm not sure from where, but it seems that I was mis-informed.

The only real information I managed to get from the hex editor was the file name, but that's pointless. I appreciate the help links posted earlier, but as a matter of principle, if I used those to find the password, it would NOT prove anything.

I made a statement that for a .zip file, the password is stored in a raw format (or something similar). That is wrong. My bad. :confused:

Still, tcsenter, you managed to get me to kill 5+ hours of my time, pouring over that zip file.



What was the password anyway? I'm curious.
 

chronodekar

Senior member
Nov 2, 2008
721
1
0
Sooo, the pdf was the specification update for the intel 945G chipset. An interesting co-incidence as that's what's on my home system. :laugh:

Just thought that I'd mention it, if anyone was curious.