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Author Topic: Help needed to decode keys  (Read 47 times)
onisuk20 (OP)
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August 12, 2025, 02:58:35 PM
 #1

HI,
Another year and I'm still plugging away at these old mining keys.

The wallet is circa 2013, 1CAS address, Base58 (P2PKH) format. I have found a file named "bitcoin-wallet-keys-2011-10-08" which is from the very early versions of the Andreas Schildbach Bitcoin wallet for Android. I remember using a version that didn't even have a pin lock on it, it was that early!

I believe this version was pre-256 and was hashed using MD5, I have managed to decrypt this file with OpenSSL, but now the file is some weird, non-human-readable format, a binary wallet file rather than plain WIF keys??

I've been messing about with protobuf and bitcoinj wallet tool, but can't find a way to extract such old keys, so many things have changed since then!

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated
 
ABCbits
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August 15, 2025, 08:38:05 AM
 #2

I believe this version was pre-256 and was hashed using MD5, I have managed to decrypt this file with OpenSSL, but now the file is some weird, non-human-readable format, a binary wallet file rather than plain WIF keys??

Looking at recovery guide provided by the author, i would guess you entered wrong password.

You now have your backup file on your PC. Wallet backups are encrypted. Let's decrypt it using:

Code:
openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -md md5 -a -in bitcoin-wallet-backup-testnet-2014-11-01 > bitcoin-wallet-decrypted-backup

It will ask you for a decryption password, which is your backup password. If it prints "bad password" you've got the wrong password, but if it doesn't print anything your password might still be wrong. We can only be sure by looking at the decrypted data.

The command specifically mentioned MD5 which should match your case. But it also mention possibility of entering wrong password without message "bad password".

Forsyth Jones
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August 19, 2025, 09:47:23 PM
Merited by ABCbits (1)
 #3

I believe this version was pre-256 and was hashed using MD5, I have managed to decrypt this file with OpenSSL, but now the file is some weird, non-human-readable format, a binary wallet file rather than plain WIF keys??

Looking at recovery guide provided by the author, i would guess you entered wrong password.

You now have your backup file on your PC. Wallet backups are encrypted. Let's decrypt it using:

Code:
openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -md md5 -a -in bitcoin-wallet-backup-testnet-2014-11-01 > bitcoin-wallet-decrypted-backup

It will ask you for a decryption password, which is your backup password. If it prints "bad password" you've got the wrong password, but if it doesn't print anything your password might still be wrong. We can only be sure by looking at the decrypted data.

The command specifically mentioned MD5 which should match your case. But it also mention possibility of entering wrong password without message "bad password".
Many users complain that this guide is outdated or doesn't work as should. In the past (between 2017-18), I managed to decrypt this wallet's backup (including the PIN), but then i never managed to do it again and i set it aside.

In any case, I recommend that the OP follow the instructions ou the github. There're several threads on this board about "decrypting a Bitcoin wallet backup" (including some opened by me) that the OP can check out. Perhaps it could work for you.
It would be helpful if someone made an updated video or the guide itself updated the document (or at least revised it).

I'll leave one more topic, there are several:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2061691.0

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