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Re: SEEK: freeware to decrypt password-protected Winzip files
de Franklin 06/21/2006 12:25
On 20 Jun 2006, Al Klein<rukbat@pern.invalid> wrote:
>>Hi Jimbok, I don't want to crack the file!
>>
>>Please see a clearer explanation of what I want in the post I made
>>to Dave Turner in this thread.
>><news:Xns97E81AE10E52F8FCE1@127.0.0.1>
>>
>>It is because AES is so good that I am using it to encrypt the
>>file.
>>
>>However I need a freeware util for my recipient to be able to open
>>it using my password. Seems they have trouble using whatever zip
>>util it is that they have on their machine.
>
> If you encrypted it using Winzip and they can't open it using
> Winzip, the file is corrupt. That means that it can't be "opened",
> it can only be cracked, assuming that only the password was
> corrupted.
>
> If your recipient is trying to open the file some other way, that's
> the problem. The solution is to have your recipient open the file
> with Winzip.
I have no idea if they are using Winzip or not. That is because they
are straightforward end-users and they themselves do not know.
However, Winzip's archive format is known openly and many utilities
can use that. AES is not so widely implemented.
I suspect that buying Winzip for each PC is too costly for them.
>
> There's no "utility" that can "open" a file that was encrypted with
> AES - it has to be cracked. If there were utilities that could
> open it, what good would the encryption be? And, as Terry Russell
> already said, unless your recipient is very lucky, the universe
> won't last long enough, with current computing power, to crack the
> file. (Of course, in a thousand years or so, computers will
> probably be powerful enough that AES256 will be as difficult to
> break as a piece of wet tissue. But that won't do your recipient
> any good.)
It's probably best if you have a look at the explanation I refer to
above because I rather suspect you and I are using "open" very
differently.