Encrypted wallet.dat, lost password, any solutions?

[btchris]

Christopher, I´m planing to try out your software, I´ve seen your updates upto today inclusive. Any suggestions running on Windows. Can i´t be run offline :-)

Offline? Absolutely. It has zero network-related code.

You sound like the paranoid type (like me ), so here are some tips.

btcrecover doesn't require any binaries for the most part, but for some wallet types, installing some pre-compiled binaries can greatly speed things up (see the Installation Guide for details). I didn't compile any of the binaries, so even if you don't trust me (and you've got no reason to), you only need trust the source of the binaries.

But all of that doesn't even matter much if you want to run it offline. Just download the btcrecover .zip file, and the various binary installers you need according to the installation guide, throw them on a USB stick and install them on your offline PC.

What does matter, for the truly paranoid like me, is whether or not btcrecover has direct access to your wallet file (ideally, it shouldn't need it). To "fix" this issue, download one of the extract scripts listed here, and follow the directions in that doc to give only that one small script access to your wallet file (also offline). Once you get the extract string, you can give that to btcrecover instead of a full wallet file.

The advantage is that the extract script which has access to your full wallet file is small, simple, and self-contained. Even if you're not a Python programmer, you can probably verify that it's not doing anything "funny", has no network code, etc. (as opposed to the rest of btcrecover which has over 5,000 lines of code....)

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[Furio]

Dave at walletrecoveryservices.com managed to recover my password with only the information of what I originally thought my password was.

He charges 20% of the wallet amount (not much in my case) and was totally trustworthy. With all the stories around hacking and dodgy activities flying around, it was nice to have this experience when just getting started.

So thanks Dave 

I think I need his services too, can't recover my 5 btc

If you'd like to try to recover it yourself, here's the Quick Start for an open source (free) tool called btcrecover: https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover/blob/master/TUTORIAL.md#btcrecover-tutorial. It does take a bit of work to get it set up and running, though. (Full disclosure: I'm the author of that tool.)

If you have any questions about it, just let me know.

Although I've never dealt with Dave personally, he's gotten nothing but good reviews from what I can tell, so that seems like a good option too.

Thanks for yuour help man, really aprreciated Will try it

[smartwombat]

Another candidate here for your software (and I may try the GPU version).
Since LEOcoin uses a leocoin-qt wallet, it should be possible to use your software, I hope?
I've already checked and I can set it up as a server, and connect to it with the Windows PowerShell script posted here.
But I need a better tool for tying the very long (over 50 character) password.
As a database programmer, guess I'm going to be making lots of dumb mistakes with Python.
Now, do I feel lucky ?

[watashi-kokoto]

please also backup the wallet.dat

[grace_monkey]

Hi
I’ve lost my password for bitcoin wallet

But I have unencrypted backup of the wallet that was made year ago.
Unfortunately, bitcoins stored on addresses that contained only in ciphered wallet, not in unencrypted backup.
But some of addresses contained in both the ciphered wallet and unencrypted backup

I have idea:
- choose any address that contained in both the ciphered wallet and unencrypted backup
- extract private key for address from unencrypted backup
- extract ciphered private key from ciphered wallet
- compare two extracted strings and get password for the wallet

I have superficial knowledge of cryptography, but this should work

Anyone know about software that can do what I described?

[CoinTop]

does this work on altcoins to?

Which "this" did you mean?

Most of the methods in this thread will work on most altcoins which were originally based on Bitcoin software (and that's most, but not all, altcoins). So in short: probably, but it depends on the details...

i've got a pandacoin (PND) wallet, i changed my password a few months ago. i mixed up one or two letters. i always write my passwords on paper and ceep them in a secret location but this one i fucked up, at the time i didn't care to much as it was wirth only a few hundred usd.

but atm its worth a lot nore then that..

im not a geek so im green when it comes to this kind of shit.

i did a search for pandacoind put didn't find anything, so any help would be great

tommy

I'm not familiar with pandacoin, but here's the best advice I can give you. Basically, you'll need to create a test wallet with a known password, and test one of the password recovery techniques in this thread to make sure it succeeds, and then try your real wallet:

• First and foremost, close the wallet software and then make a backup (or two!) of your wallet file.
• Rename your wallet file, and restart the wallet software.
• I'm presuming that a new wallet file is created during startup (which is common). If not, create a new wallet.
• Add a password to the new wallet.
• Find and install some software from this thread that can attempt to recover passwords from bitcoin wallets.
• Configure the software to check your known password against the newly created wallet from above, and see if it succeeds.
• Assuming it does, use this software against your backed-up wallet.

I realize it's a pain, so you might rather enlist the (paid) services of someone in the Services Discussion section. Maybe someone with pandacoin experience will reply, but until then, this is the best I can offer...

This is a good suggestion i would try this if I was you.

[btchris]

I have idea:
- choose any address that contained in both the ciphered wallet and unencrypted backup
- extract private key for address from unencrypted backup
- extract ciphered private key from ciphered wallet
- compare two extracted strings and get password for the wallet

I have superficial knowledge of cryptography, but this should work

Anyone know about software that can do what I described?

This is called a "known-plaintext attack". Every wallet I've seen to date uses the AES cipher which is believed to be invulnerable to this type of attack, sorry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Known-plaintext_attack#Present_day

Do you have any recollection of your password? If so, you might be able to use one of the tools in this thread, or you could hire a service to try to recover your password.

[thilan29]

Hello btchris, thanks very much for writing out that program.

I'm trying to recover a password from my bitcoin core wallet.

A couple of questions:
1)How do I include a "$" or "^" in the token list file?  As it is, it is assuming that I am trying to say some character is at the end of the password, but actually I'm fairly certain there is a "$" in my password.

2)How do I include a single character more than once in the token list?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

EDIT: I got it!!!  Program worked flawlessly!  Turns out I didn't have a "$" in the pass.  For future reference, how WOULD you add a "$" into the token list?

PS.  I sent some btc your way to 17LGpN2z62zp7RS825jXwYtE7zZ19Mxxu8 which was listed at github.
THANKS!!!!

[btchris]

EDIT: I got it!!!  Program worked flawlessly!

That's great, I'm glad it helped!!

For future reference, how WOULD you add a "$" into the token list?

You can use this escape sequence which will be replaced by a single "$": $S
(You only need to use it if you want a $ at the end of a token.) Here are the docs on which special characters need escape sequences: https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover/blob/master/docs/Limitations_and_Caveats.md#delimiters-spaces-and-special-symbols-in-passwords

PS.  I sent some btc your way to 17LGpN2z62zp7RS825jXwYtE7zZ19Mxxu8 which was listed at github.
THANKS!!!!

Awesome, thank you so much!!!

-Chris

[Troonetpt]

Did this issue be solved? it has past 3 years.
                                                                                     

[Webnet]

did u suveed in recovering your bitcoins yet.

[danympp81]

EDIT: I got it!!!  Program worked flawlessly!

That's great, I'm glad it helped!!

For future reference, how WOULD you add a "$" into the token list?

You can use this escape sequence which will be replaced by a single "$": $S
(You only need to use it if you want a $ at the end of a token.) Here are the docs on which special characters need escape sequences: https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover/blob/master/docs/Limitations_and_Caveats.md#delimiters-spaces-and-special-symbols-in-passwords

PS.  I sent some btc your way to 17LGpN2z62zp7RS825jXwYtE7zZ19Mxxu8 which was listed at github.
THANKS!!!!

Awesome, thank you so much!!!

-Chris

hi chris,

i am trying to use your software but i don't know why i am always having the error that --wallet is required and suposedly is correct, i followed all the steps and later tried different options but always the same error. what i am doing wrong?

thanks mate.

[btchris]

hi chris,

i am trying to use your software but i don't know why i am always having the error that --wallet is required and suposedly is correct, i followed all the steps and later tried different options but always the same error. what i am doing wrong?

thanks mate.

Hi.

Could you show exactly what command you're typing in, and also exactly what the error message is please?

[danympp81]

hi chris,

i am trying to use your software but i don't know why i am always having the error that --wallet is required and suposedly is correct, i followed all the steps and later tried different options but always the same error. what i am doing wrong?

thanks mate.

Hi.

Could you show exactly what command you're typing in, and also exactly what the error message is please?

i have the tokens file for the passwords and i have the following command in btcrecover-tokens-auto.txt file:

# --wallet wallet1.dat --tokenlist tokens.txt --autosave savefile

this is in a .txt file and i am using the .py file as a command. i am not sure if i am experssing myself correctly.

thanks

[btchris]

i have the tokens file for the passwords and i have the following command in btcrecover-tokens-auto.txt file:

# --wallet wallet1.dat --tokenlist tokens.txt --autosave savefile

this is in a .txt file and i am using the .py file as a command. i am not sure if i am experssing myself correctly.

thanks

Is that all on the first line? It can't be on any other line...

Is there a space between the "#" and the "--" ? There can't be a space there... (actually I just now uploaded a fixed version that no longer minds extra spaces there so that nobody else gets tripped up with this).

[danympp81]

i have the tokens file for the passwords and i have the following command in btcrecover-tokens-auto.txt file:

# --wallet wallet1.dat --tokenlist tokens.txt --autosave savefile

this is in a .txt file and i am using the .py file as a command. i am not sure if i am experssing myself correctly.

thanks

Is that all on the first line? It can't be on any other line...

Is there a space between the "#" and the "--" ? There can't be a space there... (actually I just now uploaded a fixed version that no longer minds extra spaces there so that nobody else gets tripped up with this).

i will check that but in the manual you explained that it needed a space to work. i will try later because it had a space between. and yes, all is in the same line. i just have that line in the txt file.

thanks

edit: now the problem i have is when i execute the script it says" unrecognized arguments: tokens.txt" i am doing something wrong with the token list file. does every possible password have to be in different lines?

[btchris]

Is there a space between the "#" and the "--" ? There can't be a space there... (actually I just now uploaded a fixed version that no longer minds extra spaces there so that nobody else gets tripped up with this).

i will check that but in the manual you explained that it needed a space to work.

Did I? From the manual here, it says "must begin with exactly #--". Maybe there's somewhere else I missed? I guess it doesn't really matter now that it works either way, though...

edit: now the problem i have is when i execute the script it says" unrecognized arguments: tokens.txt" i am doing something wrong with the token list file. does every possible password have to be in different lines?

I should have noticed that from your first response, sorry

If you want to use the btcrecover-tokens-auto.txt feature, do not use a separate tokens.txt file. Remove "--tokenlist tokens.txt" from the first line, and then take the contents of the tokens.txt file and place them inside the btcrecover-tokens-auto.txt file after the first line so that it looks something like this, all in one file:

Code:

#--wallet wallet1.dat--autosave savefile
pass Pass
word Word

(which would try these passwords, where "pass" and "Pass" never appear together, "word" and Word" never appear together, but all the other combinations are tried:

Code:

pass
Pass
word
wordpass
password
wordPass
Password
Word
Wordpass
passWord
WordPass
PassWord

)

[danympp81]

Is there a space between the "#" and the "--" ? There can't be a space there... (actually I just now uploaded a fixed version that no longer minds extra spaces there so that nobody else gets tripped up with this).

i will check that but in the manual you explained that it needed a space to work.

Did I? From the manual here, it says "must begin with exactly #--". Maybe there's somewhere else I missed? I guess it doesn't really matter now that it works either way, though...

edit: now the problem i have is when i execute the script it says" unrecognized arguments: tokens.txt" i am doing something wrong with the token list file. does every possible password have to be in different lines?

I should have noticed that from your first response, sorry

If you want to use the btcrecover-tokens-auto.txt feature, do not use a separate tokens.txt file. Remove "--tokenlist tokens.txt" from the first line, and then take the contents of the tokens.txt file and place them inside the btcrecover-tokens-auto.txt file after the first line so that it looks something like this, all in one file:

Code:

#--wallet wallet1.dat--autosave savefile
pass Pass
word Word

(which would try these passwords, where "pass" and "Pass" never appear together, "word" and Word" never appear together, but all the other combinations are tried:

Code:

pass
Pass
word
wordpass
password
wordPass
Password
Word
Wordpass
passWord
WordPass
PassWord

)

great, manage to do it  

now the problems is that after checking for less than a minute it says out of memory, becuase it found 12800000 passwords  . also it nitices that the dupchecks options will reduce memory usage.... and then it stops  

edit: i took out some passwords that they were very similar and now it's going fine. hope to find the password

[Tranz]

Here, I whipped up something quick and dirty.  Just fill in your passphrase as close as you can remember, and make sure bitcoind is in the current dir.  It should print lots of "The wallet passphrase entered was incorrect" if it's working.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/ruby -w

passphrase = "oops"
characters = " !\"\#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~"

def test(phrase)
  print phrase, "\t"
  msg=`openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -a -in bitcoin-wallet-backup-2014-12-06 -k #{phrase} |tr -cd "[:print:]" | awk '{print $1}'`
  msg = msg.chomp
  if msg == "org.bitcoin.production"
    puts "Found it!  #{phrase}"
    exit 0
  end
end

# transpose adjacent chars
(passphrase.length - 1).times do |i|
  testphrase = passphrase.dup
  testphrase[i] = passphrase[i+1]
  testphrase[i+1] = passphrase[i]
  test testphrase
end

# delete one char
passphrase.length.times do |i|
  testphrase = passphrase.dup
  testphrase = testphrase[0,i] + testphrase[(i+1)..-1]
  test testphrase
end

# substitutute one char
passphrase.length.times do |i|
  characters.chars.each do |c|
    testphrase = passphrase.dup
    testphrase[i] = c
    test testphrase
  end
end

# insert one char
(passphrase.length + 1).times do |i|
  characters.chars.each do |c|
    testphrase = passphrase.dup
    testphrase.insert(i, c)
    test testphrase
  end
end


puts "No luck."
exit 1

Good luck!

edit: This also requires a running bitcoind.
1. set "rpcpassword=somerandomcrap" in .bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
2. run "./bitcoind -daemon"
3. run "./bitcoind getinfo" until it starts returning data instead of errors
4. then run the script above.

Just wanted to say thanks for this. I had lost(mistyped) my Android backup wallet password. And I slightly modified this script (as shown). And I as able to get the correct password in a matter of seconds.  First time with ruby, so I cheated with some system calls. But it did the job, albeit it made a few crazy files in the process. Thanks!!

[andreibi]

BTChris,

I get

Code:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\me\Desktop\btcrecover-master\btcrecover.py", line 52, in <module>
    import sys, argparse, itertools, string, re, multiprocessing, signal, os, cPickle, gc, \
ImportError: No module named 'cPickle'

with BTCRecover.