Unlocking Password Protected PDF Files And More

Don’t you hate it when people password protect PDF documents? How about when you add the password protection, but are unable to remember the password you selected? Or, when you discover that a former employee added password protection to important business content, but neglected to share those passwords with those who replaced them. For these situations and many more, you might try using ElcomSoft’s Distributed Password Recovery tools. As you can imagine, Adobe is not very happy with ElcomSoft’s approach and has made this fact widely known. Nevertheless, the password-cracking product is available and legal. So, the next time you think your double-top secret files (see the list of easily-cracked file types below) are secure, think again.

Supported applications and document formats:

Word/Excel/PowerPoint XP/2003 (.DOC, .XLS, .PPT) (password recovery - “open” password only)
Word/Excel 97/2000 (.DOC, .XLS) (password recovery - “open” password only)
Word/Excel 97/2000 (.DOC, .XLS) (guaranteed decryption)
PGP secret key rings (.SKR) (passphrase recovery)
PGP disks with conventional encryption (.PGD) (password recovery)
PGP self-decrypting archives (.EXE) (password recovery)
Personal Information Exchange certificates - PKCS #12 (.PFX, .P12) (password recovery)
Adobe Acrobat PDF with 128-bit encryption ("user" and “owner” password recovery)
Adobe Acrobat PDF with 40-bit encryption ("user" and “owner” password recovery)
Adobe Acrobat PDF with 40-bit encryption (guaranteed decryption)

Filed under: Security