Recovering data from a partition without the passphrase
Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP up vote
1
down vote
favorite
How can I recover data from a crashed disk whose encryption passphrase I have forgotten? I have the root password, and my Ubuntu 16.04 is not booting. I am able to see the partition when I mount the disk in another computer but the files are not accessible.
encryption passphrase
asked Apr 26 at 6:26
Evans Ikua
61
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
How can I recover data from a crashed disk whose encryption passphrase I have forgotten? I have the root password, and my Ubuntu 16.04 is not booting. I am able to see the partition when I mount the disk in another computer but the files are not accessible.
encryption passphrase
asked Apr 26 at 6:26
Evans Ikua
61
1
If the data is encrypted and you don't have the passphrase, you're out of luck.
– dsstorefile1
Apr 26 at 6:32
related: askubuntu.com/questions/38336/…
– Takkat
Apr 26 at 6:42
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
How can I recover data from a crashed disk whose encryption passphrase I have forgotten? I have the root password, and my Ubuntu 16.04 is not booting. I am able to see the partition when I mount the disk in another computer but the files are not accessible.
encryption passphrase
asked Apr 26 at 6:26
Evans Ikua
61
How can I recover data from a crashed disk whose encryption passphrase I have forgotten? I have the root password, and my Ubuntu 16.04 is not booting. I am able to see the partition when I mount the disk in another computer but the files are not accessible.
encryption passphrase
asked Apr 26 at 6:26
Evans Ikua
61
asked Apr 26 at 6:26
Evans Ikua
61
asked Apr 26 at 6:26
Evans Ikua
61
asked Apr 26 at 6:26
Evans Ikua
61
61
1
If the data is encrypted and you don't have the passphrase, you're out of luck.
– dsstorefile1
Apr 26 at 6:32
related: askubuntu.com/questions/38336/…
– Takkat
Apr 26 at 6:42
add a comment |Â
1
If the data is encrypted and you don't have the passphrase, you're out of luck.
– dsstorefile1
Apr 26 at 6:32
related: askubuntu.com/questions/38336/…
– Takkat
Apr 26 at 6:42
1
1
If the data is encrypted and you don't have the passphrase, you're out of luck.
– dsstorefile1
Apr 26 at 6:32
If the data is encrypted and you don't have the passphrase, you're out of luck.
– dsstorefile1
Apr 26 at 6:32
related: askubuntu.com/questions/38336/…
– Takkat
Apr 26 at 6:42
related: askubuntu.com/questions/38336/…
– Takkat
Apr 26 at 6:42
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
up vote
1
down vote
The entire point of encryption is to keep unauthorized users out of files. This authorization is usually done via password. It is very likely all data on that drive (especially if it suffered a failure) should be considered lost.
However, for the sake of knowledge, you may theoretically launch a brute force attack against this drive:
- First and foremost (as with any failing hard drive), create a full disk image using the
ddcommand. If this fails, you may have luck withddrescueand other such emergency recovery utilities. Once you have an image, get rid of the hard drive. It's dead. - Use a tool like John the Ripper or
bruteforce-luksto attempt to brute force the encryption password. This will take a very long time, as decoding the master key for a LUKS-encrypted drive takes time. See this question on Security.SE, where a few passwords a second is considered good.
All in all, the data there is lost. In the future, ensure you have available (and working!) backups available to you. Also ensure that you either have an emergency recovery encryption key, or have your standard LUKS password written down and stored in a safe location (e.g. bank security deposit box).
See the Red Hat documentation for a couple other approaches (if you have a second keyslot, a master key, or the drive is still open). In your case, however, it seems unlikely that any of those apply.
answered Apr 26 at 6:39
Kaz Wolfe
25.5k1370131
OK, I think that is quite clear. I will see what to do. Unfortunately this hard disk died at the same time that my external WD Passport disk died with my backup. They were both 5 years old, almost to a month. RIP! Very expensive lessons here..
– Evans Ikua
Apr 26 at 7:52
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
1
down vote
The entire point of encryption is to keep unauthorized users out of files. This authorization is usually done via password. It is very likely all data on that drive (especially if it suffered a failure) should be considered lost.
However, for the sake of knowledge, you may theoretically launch a brute force attack against this drive:
- First and foremost (as with any failing hard drive), create a full disk image using the
ddcommand. If this fails, you may have luck withddrescueand other such emergency recovery utilities. Once you have an image, get rid of the hard drive. It's dead. - Use a tool like John the Ripper or
bruteforce-luksto attempt to brute force the encryption password. This will take a very long time, as decoding the master key for a LUKS-encrypted drive takes time. See this question on Security.SE, where a few passwords a second is considered good.
All in all, the data there is lost. In the future, ensure you have available (and working!) backups available to you. Also ensure that you either have an emergency recovery encryption key, or have your standard LUKS password written down and stored in a safe location (e.g. bank security deposit box).
See the Red Hat documentation for a couple other approaches (if you have a second keyslot, a master key, or the drive is still open). In your case, however, it seems unlikely that any of those apply.
answered Apr 26 at 6:39
Kaz Wolfe
25.5k1370131
OK, I think that is quite clear. I will see what to do. Unfortunately this hard disk died at the same time that my external WD Passport disk died with my backup. They were both 5 years old, almost to a month. RIP! Very expensive lessons here..
– Evans Ikua
Apr 26 at 7:52
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
The entire point of encryption is to keep unauthorized users out of files. This authorization is usually done via password. It is very likely all data on that drive (especially if it suffered a failure) should be considered lost.
However, for the sake of knowledge, you may theoretically launch a brute force attack against this drive:
- First and foremost (as with any failing hard drive), create a full disk image using the
ddcommand. If this fails, you may have luck withddrescueand other such emergency recovery utilities. Once you have an image, get rid of the hard drive. It's dead. - Use a tool like John the Ripper or
bruteforce-luksto attempt to brute force the encryption password. This will take a very long time, as decoding the master key for a LUKS-encrypted drive takes time. See this question on Security.SE, where a few passwords a second is considered good.
All in all, the data there is lost. In the future, ensure you have available (and working!) backups available to you. Also ensure that you either have an emergency recovery encryption key, or have your standard LUKS password written down and stored in a safe location (e.g. bank security deposit box).
See the Red Hat documentation for a couple other approaches (if you have a second keyslot, a master key, or the drive is still open). In your case, however, it seems unlikely that any of those apply.
answered Apr 26 at 6:39
Kaz Wolfe
25.5k1370131
OK, I think that is quite clear. I will see what to do. Unfortunately this hard disk died at the same time that my external WD Passport disk died with my backup. They were both 5 years old, almost to a month. RIP! Very expensive lessons here..
– Evans Ikua
Apr 26 at 7:52
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
up vote
1
down vote
The entire point of encryption is to keep unauthorized users out of files. This authorization is usually done via password. It is very likely all data on that drive (especially if it suffered a failure) should be considered lost.
However, for the sake of knowledge, you may theoretically launch a brute force attack against this drive:
- First and foremost (as with any failing hard drive), create a full disk image using the
ddcommand. If this fails, you may have luck withddrescueand other such emergency recovery utilities. Once you have an image, get rid of the hard drive. It's dead. - Use a tool like John the Ripper or
bruteforce-luksto attempt to brute force the encryption password. This will take a very long time, as decoding the master key for a LUKS-encrypted drive takes time. See this question on Security.SE, where a few passwords a second is considered good.
All in all, the data there is lost. In the future, ensure you have available (and working!) backups available to you. Also ensure that you either have an emergency recovery encryption key, or have your standard LUKS password written down and stored in a safe location (e.g. bank security deposit box).
See the Red Hat documentation for a couple other approaches (if you have a second keyslot, a master key, or the drive is still open). In your case, however, it seems unlikely that any of those apply.
answered Apr 26 at 6:39
Kaz Wolfe
25.5k1370131
The entire point of encryption is to keep unauthorized users out of files. This authorization is usually done via password. It is very likely all data on that drive (especially if it suffered a failure) should be considered lost.
However, for the sake of knowledge, you may theoretically launch a brute force attack against this drive:
- First and foremost (as with any failing hard drive), create a full disk image using the
ddcommand. If this fails, you may have luck withddrescueand other such emergency recovery utilities. Once you have an image, get rid of the hard drive. It's dead. - Use a tool like John the Ripper or
bruteforce-luksto attempt to brute force the encryption password. This will take a very long time, as decoding the master key for a LUKS-encrypted drive takes time. See this question on Security.SE, where a few passwords a second is considered good.
All in all, the data there is lost. In the future, ensure you have available (and working!) backups available to you. Also ensure that you either have an emergency recovery encryption key, or have your standard LUKS password written down and stored in a safe location (e.g. bank security deposit box).
See the Red Hat documentation for a couple other approaches (if you have a second keyslot, a master key, or the drive is still open). In your case, however, it seems unlikely that any of those apply.
answered Apr 26 at 6:39
Kaz Wolfe
25.5k1370131
answered Apr 26 at 6:39
Kaz Wolfe
25.5k1370131
answered Apr 26 at 6:39
Kaz Wolfe
25.5k1370131
answered Apr 26 at 6:39
Kaz Wolfe
25.5k1370131
25.5k1370131
OK, I think that is quite clear. I will see what to do. Unfortunately this hard disk died at the same time that my external WD Passport disk died with my backup. They were both 5 years old, almost to a month. RIP! Very expensive lessons here..
– Evans Ikua
Apr 26 at 7:52
add a comment |Â
OK, I think that is quite clear. I will see what to do. Unfortunately this hard disk died at the same time that my external WD Passport disk died with my backup. They were both 5 years old, almost to a month. RIP! Very expensive lessons here..
– Evans Ikua
Apr 26 at 7:52
OK, I think that is quite clear. I will see what to do. Unfortunately this hard disk died at the same time that my external WD Passport disk died with my backup. They were both 5 years old, almost to a month. RIP! Very expensive lessons here..
– Evans Ikua
Apr 26 at 7:52
OK, I think that is quite clear. I will see what to do. Unfortunately this hard disk died at the same time that my external WD Passport disk died with my backup. They were both 5 years old, almost to a month. RIP! Very expensive lessons here..
– Evans Ikua
Apr 26 at 7:52
add a comment |Â
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e)
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom))
StackExchange.using('gps', function() StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', location: 'question_page' ); );
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
;
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2faskubuntu.com%2fquestions%2f1028285%2frecovering-data-from-a-partition-without-the-passphrase%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e)
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom))
StackExchange.using('gps', function() StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', location: 'question_page' ); );
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
;
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e)
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom))
StackExchange.using('gps', function() StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', location: 'question_page' ); );
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
;
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e)
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom))
StackExchange.using('gps', function() StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', location: 'question_page' ); );
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
;
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
1
If the data is encrypted and you don't have the passphrase, you're out of luck.
– dsstorefile1
Apr 26 at 6:32
related: askubuntu.com/questions/38336/…
– Takkat
Apr 26 at 6:42