How to Open Password Protected RAR Files

Posted on December 7, 2009 at 5:30 am

Have you ever ended up with a RAR file that was password protected? Maybe you set the password yourself and forgot it! Whatever the case, there are a couple of ways to crack the password on a RAR file if you get lucky.

Basically, there are two standard methods to cracking a password for any program: dictionary attack and brute-force attack. The first generates passwords using word lists from a dictionary and the latter simply searches all possible character combinations.

Obviously, the latter is harder and will take more time. If the password is very complex and doesn’t have any recognizable dictionary word in it, it might simply be impossible. However, it’s always worth a try.

In this article, I’ll list out a couple of software products that can help crack a RAR file, some of which are free and some that cost money. Depending on how important getting into the file is, it might be worth spending $20 or $30.

Atomic RAR Password Recovery

The free trial will allow you to recover passwords up to 3 characters in length. If you have a longer password and the program is able to determine the entire password, you will see the 1st three characters followed by asterisks (*).

In this case, you can buy the program and it will unmask all the characters. If it never shows the asterisks, that means it can’t figure out the password and you don’t have to buy it! Nice.

RAR Password Cracker

This is another program that uses both the brute force attack method and the dictionary attack. It’s shareware also, so the free trial has some limitations.

Elcomsoft Advanced Archive Password Recovery

Another good software for cracking into archive files like RAR and ZIP files is Advanced Archive Password Recovery.

What’s cool about this program is that it can crack some passwords in less than an hour if the version of WinZip is below 8.0 by taking advantage of an exploit.

What’s also good about this program is that it supports some of the later encryption technologies, like AES encryption used in WinRAR. The program also supports archive files over 4GB in size and includes the ability to pause and resume attacks.

Unfortunately, those are all the good RAR password crackers I could really find. Nothing is completely free and some looked like they contained viruses. Enjoy!

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Comments

9 Responses to “How to Open Password Protected RAR Files”

Basant Singh said on : December 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am

I was not aware of this! Thanks for sharing

Rahtullah said on : December 27th, 2009 at 12:28 am

Hi someone please help me, I have a ZIP file and I can’t open it because it has a password.

Aster said on : March 9th, 2010 at 1:53 pm

I’ve tried a couple of the RAR password crackers you mentioned, but can’t get them to work! Another other suggestions? I have to get inside this RAR file! Help!

Fantasy said on : April 13th, 2010 at 10:09 pm

bro thanks for the info. but can you please explain it with more details and images?? I tried the break the password on a RAR file, but it didn’t work.

vyvnod said on : May 5th, 2010 at 2:39 am

I use RAR Password Recovery 5.0,it works well.

cusmin said on : May 8th, 2010 at 10:49 am

Just forget it…it’s took ages to find the password and wasting time. NEVER WORK !!

tsering said on : May 9th, 2010 at 11:31 am

thanks a lot for the info…..I got into my RAR file!

N.Srinivas Rathal said on : May 24th, 2010 at 5:34 am

Someone please help me I have some exel file in my pen drive and I can not open it because it has a password.