Help with wallet.dat file ..

[harryholland]

Hi

My father passed away a few years back and my mother gave me a CDROM that contained his bitcoins.

I noticed the price has shot up and thought I'd have a look at this CDROM.

I am not technical but have learned quite a bit in the last month.

I have found one file called wallet.dat - which I can now see after downloading the bitcoin core and waiting many days for it to synchronise!

The file contains nearly 10 bitcoins.

Unfortunately I have discovered the file is password protected - I have tried guessing but to no avail.

1. Do you know if there is a timeout limit on guessing - I must have had over 15 guesses so far?
2. Is there soffware that can do the guessing?
3. Are there companies anyone can recommend that can find the password.


Thank you
Harry

[ABCbits]

First of all, people who PM you to offer help usually is a scammer. I would recommend you to ignore/report such PM.

I noticed the price has shot up and thought I'd have a look at this CDROM.

I am not technical but have learned quite a bit in the last month.

I have found one file called wallet.dat - which I can now see after downloading the bitcoin core and waiting many days for it to synchronise!

1. Make sure to make copy of wallet.dat to place you deemed secure.
2. Have you checked whether there are other files on the CD that may serve as hint of the password?

1. Do you know if there is a timeout limit on guessing - I must have had over 15 guesses so far?

AFAIK Bitcoin Core doesn't have such arbitrary limitation.

2. Is there soffware that can do the guessing?

BTCRecover[1] usually recommended for guessing/brute-force password. But it's not practical option if you don't know characteristic of the password.

[1] https://btcrecover.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

[harryholland]

Thank you for letting me know there is no limit.

I will have a look at btcrecover - but watching a short video it looks like I need a very powerful machine with lots of gaming cards.

Does anyone know of any companies who can help do this for me?
What might it cost?
Is it safe/sensible to send them the wallet.dat file?

Thanks
Harry

[whanau]

Unless you have some idea of the password or it is a short password, you have little chance of recovering the coins.
The best bet is to examine the CDROM very carefully as has been suggested and check with your mother if possible, what passwords he may have used for other things such as email. There may be a pattern. If there is any paperwork, check that for passwords too.

I would not suggest you hand your wallet out as it is not corrupt and could have a simple password that others with powerful equipment may hack in minutes.
What is safe, is to make a 'hash string' using this btc2john software.  https://github.com/openwall/john/blob/bleeding-jumbo/doc/README.bitcoin It looks daunting but isn't. the result, which will look something like this:  $bitcoin$64$02eecf1f942b9c8cf7479a9a5f1055297fed799cac5a79c4635973c83cb6b938$16$15863bcede2eb336$343753$2$00$2$00 can safely be sent out to people. If that can be decrypted correctly, the password used is correct.  That string,does not contain the key with the funds, that are in the wallet..

There is no time limit on decryption or practical limit to the amount of guesses.

[ABCbits]

I will have a look at btcrecover - but watching a short video it looks like I need a very powerful machine with lots of gaming cards.

It's not required/needed to have powerful machine (with one or more fast GPU), but it's recommended to have access to such machine to improve brute-force speed.

Does anyone know of any companies who can help do this for me?
What might it cost?

Some active or formerly active would mention walletrecoveryservices.com. But i do NOT vouch them since i never use them. By the way, they normally charge 20% of total coin on your wallet as payment fee.

Is it safe/sensible to send them the wallet.dat file?

As stated by @whanau, it's not safe since they could steal your Bitcoin if they managed to brute-force your wallet.dat.

[harryholland]

Thank you ABCbits & whanau for your words of advice.

I tried to create the hash - but failed - alas Python was too much for me - wish I was more technical.

Thanks for the name of the password recovery company - I found another called bringbackmycrypto - does anyone who is theyu are more reliable?

Thank you again : )

[hopenotlate]

You could try to get in touch with user babo who is a high trusted member of this forum and by checking his profile you can see he offers a wallet recovery service, maybe he could be of help.
Anyway, it's up to you whether you decide to trust him for 10 bitcoins.

There is/was also at least another high trusted user who performed some good amount btc wallet recovery in the past but I cannot remember the name by hand right now ( will post here if I manage to find out who he is).

Do not fall for scammy services/users ..... Aasuming the story you're telling is true and you haven't already been scammed into buying the .dat file you say belonged to your father...

[babo]

Thank you ABCbits & whanau for your words of advice.

I tried to create the hash - but failed - alas Python was too much for me - wish I was more technical.

Thanks for the name of the password recovery company - I found another called bringbackmycrypto - does anyone who is theyu are more reliable?

Thank you again : )

hi and thank you hopenotlate

start to tell me the story here or by pm (same for me) for understand if i can help you or not
better by PM but is your choice

of course check my trust and my feedbacks for understand who i am

-- update -- i read the story, we need to guess the password, not easy
but if u have clues we can try

[ABCbits]

Thanks for the name of the password recovery company - I found another called bringbackmycrypto - does anyone who is theyu are more reliable?

Personally i don't trust that website/service and would recommend you to stay away. I've explained my reason on A user keep mentioning unknown wallet service recovery.

[babo]

Thanks for the name of the password recovery company - I found another called bringbackmycrypto - does anyone who is theyu are more reliable?

Personally i don't trust that website/service and would recommend you to stay away. I've explained my reason on A user keep mentioning unknown wallet service recovery.

exactly eye on security
better to use very well known people here
the best is dave, but he wants 20%
while I'm just a Dave imitator, I try and I want 10%

so you can try to see with me, if we succeed and you can get by with 10% if we don't succeed go to master dave and by paying more you have more chances

[nc50lc]

I tried to create the hash - but failed - alas Python was too much for me - wish I was more technical.

Even without the expertise, a step-by-step guide should be easy enough to follow
But you should make a separate dedicated topic for that.

Include the Operating System of your machine and what's already installed so some people could provide you the exact commands and instructions on how to set-it up.

Heads-up: you'll encounter issues in Windows during the compilation of its requirement, bsddb3 library so if you have a Linux machine, use it instead.

[babo]

So, how did it go? Can you give us any news?
As others have said, you can try a recovery yourself; if you can, everything will be fine.
Obviously, be careful and try to make a backup. Don't underestimate this step.

Even when you do forensic analysis for the police, a backup is essential to avoid invalidating the evidence.

[BitMaxz]

I don't think he's interested?
It looks like he is promoting something that we never heard of.


@OP, how did you found bringbackmycrypto?

I saw some old posts that sirstevie6 is promoting this site. It was not a good idea to use their service, and there's a big chance that this site is a scam.
If someone just PMs you about this site, be careful because no trusted members here will bring you to that site.

ABCbits is already investigating the one who is promoting it from here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5398025.0

So how can you trust them if even their blog posts are plagiarism, according to that thread?

[highalch]

With this amount and no tech skills, I'd suggest hiring someone to recover it directly from your laptop without sending them any files. With a signed contract, with your supervision.

[babo]

the author of the thread has disappeared
at least he could have updated us or thanked us before disappearing
I will never understand these people

However, this applies to everyone, please remember to use every precaution and don't be afraid of the fees, they are high but they guarantee reliability, something that perhaps doesn't exist with others.

[BitMaxz]

the author of the thread has disappeared
at least he could have updated us or thanked us before disappearing
I will never understand these people

However, this applies to everyone, please remember to use every precaution and don't be afraid of the fees, they are high but they guarantee reliability, something that perhaps doesn't exist with others.

Like I said in my previous post, this is more likely an act and an attempt to promote "bringbackmycrypto".  So this thread was made for that site that we don't usually hear about here on the forum.

They, the old users who promote it, use wallet recovery services to make their site look legit. I'm not sure it's legit, but for safety purposes, it's better to use the reputable one than to use the BringBackMyCrypto service.

[babo]

ok ok no problem about it
I would say that since the OP has completely disappeared from our radar to close this thread, I ask the moderators to close it since we have nothing more to say about it
Maybe if we want to make a specific thread with all those who do recovery that's one thing but here it doesn't make sense anymore