forgotten rar password

i have forgotten the password of an important .rar file
is there any way i can retrieve this password or open this .rar file by some other means?

thanks.

 

None that I know of. There are some tools via a Google search, but I don't think I really trust them or the websites they are hosted on.

 

Since the file .rar is YOURS, you should know at least something about the password:

- How long it is (about)
- What set of charachters are in it
- Maybe what charachters are for sure in the password, and what characters are NOT

So, you may want to try this if the password is not "uncrackable".

 

WinRAR now uses 128-bit AES encryption. I'm afraid you are probably out of luck. The so-called "Password Cracking" programs are nothing more than simple password crackers using dictionary attacks. If you did it right and didn't use ONLY dictionary words, you are in a jam.

 

Well, you can always brute force it. I'm sure you can at least remember what type of password you used for that RAR (only numbers, letters and numbers etc). By knowing that you can boost password search speed and even in worse scenarios it might take you a week or so to find the password.

 

If this was an rar file (as the OP indicated) - and not a zip file, there's no way you're going to brute force a 128-bit AES encrypted rar file in a week if the password was even halfway decent. More like decades. For example:

b5!TG$2_a^GH*NTh$l%M

With the above, you're looking at over 100 years with 24/7, 365 days a year, super-computing power.

Even using their minimum eight-character password such as:

G*n_Ev$y

Even with that, you're talking many, many years.


From WinRAR:
ZIP 2.0 format supported by WinRAR uses a proprietary encryption algorithm. RAR archives are encrypted by the much stronger AES-128 standard. If you need to encrypt sensitive information, it is better to select the RAR archive format. For real security use passwords of at least 8 characters in length. Do not use words of any language as passwords, it is better to choose a random combination of characters and digits.

 

More practically, try to remember some commonly used passwords. Unless your password was totally random, this may work.