Bad news, I lost my VeraCrypt password. (Yes, it was extremely stupid.) Good news I used a self-created formula to build the password. I do this because it makes the password long and complex, but easier for me to remember.
Well, it didn’t work like I had hoped. I ended up going an extended time without needing to use the password, and repeated use at the beginning helps me to remember it. (i.e. I spaced, and forgot to keep it up.)
Here’s what I have. I have 168 pieces of data that could have been used in the password. I narrowed it down to these, combining pieces so there wouldn’t be any repeating parts.
The password is between 22 and 38 characters. I give about a 90% chance I got all the parts. This would give about 14,196 possible choices. (If it chose all possible choices, which shouldn’t be needed with the limit on the size.) I am fairly certain I could do it by hand, but that would be immensely tedious, though I know I could dramatically reduce the number of choices.
While I would love to have this opened right now, I really don’t need to be in a rush. I can be patient. But I believe something automated should do this fairly quickly, even with how long it takes between passwords.
But at this point, I am confused as to what to do. I think setting up the password to be repeatedly tested would be the best option, but I wouldn’t know how to do that, or if there is a tool that would do that for me. I looked into HashCat, and am not sure it’s the right tool for this. Would the file be what I am supposed to supply?
I looked at the source text files for HashCat, and set up a text file with the same information. But I am not sure if it uses each choice once, or if it will build passwords, because that is what I would need.
I used a dual encryption, figuring that was strong enough. I believe I know which one I used, if not it is most likely another one, and unlikely a third. I wouldn’t even know if HashCat works with a double encryption.
If HashCat worked with the main file, 14K possible combinations shouldn’t really take that long if it isn’t encountering the pause.
So, any advice?