Have keyfile, but lost password. Local account.

AlexC

I have keyfile I created in 2015 and buch of the files encrypted with it.
Unfortunately none of the passwords I think I would use are working.
It's local account, I never had online account. What are my changes or recovering data? Again, key file is present, just no password.

Florian

Hi AlexC,
Unfortunately there is nothing we can do in this situation.

The key file's keys are encrypted with your password, so if that password is no longer available, the keys cannot be decrypted and thus cannot access / decrypt your encrypted files.

One thing I would suggest you to try is to turn caps lock ON and re-enter the passwords, maybe this was accidentally the case when you initially created it.
Another issue I sometimes face is a switched keyboard layout. For example, if your password contains y, try with z instead (and vice versa).

Best regards,
Florian

AlexC

Florian thanks for your reply. Any bruteforce software I can use to decrypt password? Again, I have a key file, just lost password. Would JohnTheRipper work to decrypt a password?

arkantrax

If you don’t have the password, you’re SOL. You can try your luck with brute force, but that’s still an enormous amount of combinations with alphanumerical and symbol support for long passwords.