Hey, About 2 years ago I encrypted a website backup using a text-based password. Shortly after making this backup I changed from plain text passwords to using file-based passwords to help increase the security. Unfortunately I have forgotten the old password and I have exhausted all possible options. I'm pretty sure I know the first part of the password, but the end part of made up of something like $1966$ (which is the part I have forgotten). I'm pretty sure you'll say the entire file has been lost but I'm wondering if anyone know a tool I can use to brute-force the password?
I was hoping to some help on this. Would it be possible to use a WinZip or TrueCrypt brute-force application for this purpose?
I don't know any specific tools which wind through Axcrypt protected files, ask on their forums and search (I assume you haven't had any luck there). Pretty much all brute-force tools are more than that - they will use combinations of common words and passphrases in a sophisticated way so they can drastically reduce the search time, even for long passwords. With some of them, you can also seed this discovery with things that you commonly use and whatever knowledge you remember about the likely passphrase (length, your own personal techniques and words in constructing passwords etc, as you have mentioned). Since you actually have quite a good knowledge of what it likely is, the most tricky thing is getting an API to the file so you could do the combinations with a program loop. I don't know what language (if any) you prefer, but there is a C# source published by Axantum which might be modified for this purpose if you felt it worth the effort. Depending on the value of this, there are commercial services available too, and I see that the developer will do this for you if you pay.
