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How to unlock password protected .rar files

Is there any decent software (preferably free, but willing to pay for a good one) that I can use to unlock rar files?

I remember downloading one a long time ago and it worked like a charm. Sadly I can't find it nor remember it's name. Tried downloading some online but they were rubbish.

Any suggestions?
 
You can use John The Ripper to perform a dictionary attack on RAR files, there are some instructions on the web. You just need JTR and some decent dictionaries. You can find dictionaries on torrent sites.

There are also brute force methods. The only one I can recall was called RAR Password Recovery for WIN. Either way you will want to use a powerful GPU(s) instead of CPU, and as I recall WinRAR used AES-128. So unless it's your password that you simply forgot, and you know it was something fairly simple and human then it probably isn't worth the time. I'm not aware of any public backdoors existing for WinRAR.
 
Whose .RAR files need to be unlocked? What are the circumstances?
 
@sn8ke, I've tried John The Ripper, but no luck there. It was too slow. I'll try RAR Password Recovery and see how it goes.

@corkyg, It's my file. I have copied all the stuff that I had on my old IDE HDD and there is one file that I can't open. I don't know where I got it from cause that was almost 9 years ago.
 
Brute forcing it is about the only thing you can do, it would be faster if you knew the length of the password.
 
@sn8ke, I've tried John The Ripper, but no luck there. It was too slow. I'll try RAR Password Recovery and see how it goes.

@corkyg, It's my file. I have copied all the stuff that I had on my old IDE HDD and there is one file that I can't open. I don't know where I got it from cause that was almost 9 years ago.

You using GPU acceleration? A decent GPU will attempt 100,000+ words per second.
But again depending on the type of password used, it's pretty much all chance.
 
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