this is the hypothetical but quite realistic scenario because Ive just came out of a very similar situation, but I want to know if, undoubtedly, some of you are smarter than I am and will find new ways to solve this problem that could reocur in the near future to me or to anybody else

so because Im the silly boy that I am, I downloaded a long time ago a file from this forum (thats actually good), its a rar file protected with a password that doesnt even let see whats inside (some password protected rars let show the content) and with a completely nondescript name that doesnt give any useful results when I run a search. so what are my alternatives? this is what I tried. The size of the file wasnt particularly telling either as it was around 300 megs

1/ a brute force software that didnt work
2/ try to correlate the browser history of that day the file was created and see if I visited a thread with a password protected file. I got nothing so I tried threads created on that date range.. nothing again
3/ this is where Im starting to run out of ideas because Im not a brilliant person and because Im starving and need to eat something but Im on a diet (oversharing here). So I eat toasts with nutella (nutellaaaaah) and decide that not that many uploaders use password protected files. So I made a list of the usual suspects, and grab the passwords and tried everyone of them, and voil�! it worked!

very proud of me, I ate just 2 toasts instead of my usual 5 and also cracked the enigma code of modern times. Im waiting for my victoria cross, but I have the nagging feeling that I could've done more (my watch, I couldve sold my watch!) and that there must be more straightforward, ingenious ways to crack a protected rar file,

so lets create a sort of protocol for these situations, help me

I enjoyed reading that (you have a natural talent for storytelling!). However I don't have any ideas better than the ones you used. :(

What is the name of the file?

Edit: Disregard that XD I was gonna try and help you, but I hadn't finished reading the entire post.

were you going to use any other method than what I used?

"brute force software" requires days to work if you want to succeed.
You'd need a 4.xGHz CPU, RAM should be fine at 8GB, and a SSD would be nice over an HDD.
Even then, still days of work.
The password length could be anything, so you'd have to try all permutations from 1-24 characters to be safe.

You could post the name of the file.
Whoever created could recognize it and PM you the pw.
Sometimes filenames are more like Easter Eggs on DVD/BD, the name will have some connection to the film/tv/game in reference.

However!
If you've been dealing with persons in private over rare scores, sessions or otherwise, you could be compromising a trust gathered with said person over said music.
Although..... if t be that rare and private and PM-only material... it's incredibly unlikely everyone would recognize that and assume it's just an ordinary soundtrack.
But, since it's been made a public scenario, everyone will be dying to know the contents inside. ;)

Suggestion:
No one know's what music you go after more than you do.
You've been here long enough to recognize some common users.
You should try look for most common users you download from and try their most-frequent passwords.
Some users use their username for the password.
If you were active enough to post a "thank you" in their thread, you can search the forum specifically looking for posts made by you and try the passwords given there.
In instance of PM for content, you'd have to bite the bullet and try PM them all to see if anything works.

Aside from that, there's not much else to do except let brute force software run for a couple weeks.

thanks, very thorough answer

I dont know if you were talking in general or specifically when you made those excellent suggestions, but just in case Ive got to say that I cracked the code and I now enjoy the music, but one suggestion I didnt think of, and really annoys me, is to trace my thanks trail. Im a generous thanker so everything I download gets a thanks or a rep from me. I should've thought of that!

told you there were smarter people around!

hopefully this thread will be useful for some poor soul in the future, and keep the suggestions coming if you can think of more outside the box solutions!


"brute force software" requires days to work if you want to succeed.
You'd need a 4.xGHz CPU, RAM should be fine at 8GB, and a SSD would be nice over an HDD.
Even then, still days of work.
The password length could be anything, so you'd have to try all permutations from 1-24 characters to be safe.

You could post the name of the file.
Whoever created could recognize it and PM you the pw.
Sometimes filenames are more like Easter Eggs on DVD/BD, the name will have some connection to the film/tv/game in reference.

However!
If you've been dealing with persons in private over rare scores, sessions or otherwise, you could be compromising a trust gathered with said person over said music.
Although..... if t be that rare and private and PM-only material... it's incredibly unlikely everyone would recognize that and assume it's just an ordinary soundtrack.
But, since it's been made a public scenario, everyone will be dying to know the contents inside. ;)

Suggestion:
No one know's what music you go after more than you do.
You've been here long enough to recognize some common users.
You should try look for most common users you download from and try their most-frequent passwords.
Some users use their username for the password.
If you were active enough to post a "thank you" in their thread, you can search the forum specifically looking for posts made by you and try the passwords given there.
In instance of PM for content, you'd have to bite the bullet and try PM them all to see if anything works.

Aside from that, there's not much else to do except let brute force software run for a couple weeks.

Mainly in general.

I wasn't sure if you can trace your clicked Thanks.
But, posts limited by user are definitely feasible.