Passworded RAR files

[Midget]

I have some pictures which I'd rather some people didn't see so a bit ago I put them all in a RAR file and put a password on it.

Good idea, I thought. Until today when I realised that I'd completely forgot the password.

I've sat here for about an hour now trying every password I can remember ever using, I've tried opening the file in notepad to see if the password is in there anywhere, I've googled for ways to crack these files, I've tried everything I can think of.

So does anyone know a way of cracking a locked RAR file? I'm guessing it's either very difficult or very impossible but it must be worth a shot asking you guys.

Help!

[edit]
btw, I'm on a mac so all the password crackers on google won't work for me.
I also know the password won't be a dictionary term or a number combination so a brute force cracker won't work anyway...

[CodingTim]

I can't help you from experience; I've never used RAR files. However, I did find this on wikipedia:

It features strong encryption capabilities. Older versions of the file format used a proprietary but strong encryption algorithm; newer versions use the AES encryption algorithm, which is considered very strong by today's standards. The only ways to recover an encrypted file are via dictionary or brute force attacks, which are usually infeasible.

Would it have been a dictionary-able password you used?

edit: oh, ok then

Would you have written it down anywhere, or was it just random letters? Or a password you were familiar with at the time?

[Midget]

Well I like to use different variations on my first ever password, for example using words that sound alike or swapping letters round or adding numbers.

So I'm now in the process of trying every combination I can think of. :p

[Timmeh]

There are password breaking tools that'll try combinations of passwords... basically just try a, b, c, d, ....... aa, ab, ac, ad etc which is FAR from the most effective method, but gets the job done give or take a few hours of processing time. I can't really tell you where to find these tools, they could be of dubious legality... buuuuut I will say that they're not hard to find. :)

[Shpox]

Yes there are password crackers and big timmeh has explained, they can take days or hours based on a variety of factors, I never password my own .rar passwords, never found a need too, anyway, good luck with it, I have certain places where I place certain passwords such as this (On a backup drive).

[Bail]

I have a zip with a password I'd forgottern, I left a brute force attack running on is for over a month, it never opened it and I got bored of waiting, so good luck fella.

[TX_101]

Do you have any idea of how long the password is ?

If you know that it only uses letters, or letters and numbers, and it's only 5-6 characters long, then you may be able to brute force it.

Still takes a while though.

[Darkscull]

the aa, ab, ac etc. things shouldn't be illegal, since it is perfectly possible to do that by hand, or code your own.
it may be like p2p. illegality depends on how you use it :)