Hence a list of possible passwords to rearrange the sequence begin to be narrowed down as the cracking progresses.
For instance, a 3ds file always starts with a header containing the bytes '4D4D'. However, the condition for this type of cracking is that the zip file contains known file types which have a determined data format and places certain data in certain locations in the file. Then by comparing the scrambled bytes with the 'expected' unscrambled bytes, the password can easily be determined by computing an algorithm that converts those bytes because both the scrambled bytes and the unscrambled bytes are known. Say if a portion of the data in the file is known, for example a string at the end of a file, or a header containing an expected sequence of bytes in a known file type.
But I can't help thinking there's got to be a faster way.īecause the AES encryption scrambles the data contained in a zip file, the password could be found by unscrambling that data correctly.
I heard that the fastest method to crack an AES-128 encryption, or and AES-256 encryption is by brute force, which can take billions of years.
