Cracking old ARJ archive password

[nunoalex]

Hi !

I have a few old ARJ files where I stored some personal information like pictures and chats from the good old days of Mirc and entire nights chatting in the 90s
I created them using some password that I used specifically for that purpose and then I saved the files on a CD that I rediscovered recently.

Unfortunately I completely forgot the password I used and I already tried all possible things that I can remember but to now avail

I ask if there is any software solution to open this ARJ files ?
And realistically with some kind of brute force how long it would take if the password was 8-10 characters long ? I remember my passwords were never extra long...

Thank you !

Nuno

 

[mdog69]

Have you seen this? https://crypto.stackexchange.com/qu...-arj-3-characters-of-password-are-retrievable

 

[Plasma]

I have used Elcomsoft in the past for zips with good results. The trial version is limited to 4 characters though.

If the ARJ files are just using XOR "encryption" and not GOST, I would expect it to be pretty fast on a modern CPU.

 

[nunoalex]

Have you seen this? https://crypto.stackexchange.com/qu...-arj-3-characters-of-password-are-retrievable

Hi !
Thank you
It seems very technical for me but I will take a look , I guess necessity is the mother of invention

 

[MiaM]

With a limited length you could try brute forcing the password using a modern command line arj extractor and a script that just loops through all combinations of A-Za-z0-9 (and then perhaps add other characters that would had been reasonable to type on the keyboard layout you used at the time).