Crack GPG Password

[Derek Broughton]

Bart Silverstrim wrote:

> Derek Broughton wrote:
>> Bart Silverstrim wrote:
>> 
>>> Blaine Fleming wrote:
>>>> Bart Silverstrim wrote:
>>>>> You *can't* extract a part of a password like the OP is looking for.
>>>>> The algorithm used in creating the encrypted product doesn't look at
>>>>> your password as discrete chunks to be guessed like you see in the
>>>>> movies where you see, "Oh my @#$! He has the first three numbers
>>>>> already!" while you hear a crescendo of suspenseful music.
>>>>>   
>>>> Again, the way I read it the OP wants to find out the missing part.  If
>>>> I have a password of "password" but all I remember is "passwor" then I
>>>> can brute force the remaining bit.
>>> Oh my $@! How STUPID CAN YOU BE?! HOW DENSE?! Again, what I said
>>> was...oh, I see what you're saying.
>> 
>> I think you missed a :-)
> 
> Indeed ;-) But that would have stolen the thunder! C'mon...admit
> it...you had to reread that sentence just as you were about to let loose
> the dogs of war...

I'm afraid I only have the
dogs-of-complete-inactivity-except-when-we-see-a-squirrel.

>> Fairly easy, I guess if you actually have an unencrypted copy of
>> something that was crypted - then you run diff against the output of your
>> new decryption and the old data, but if you don't have such a file,
>> there's probably nothing as good as your own eyes for knowing when you
>> get it
>> right.   Though, if some of your crypted data is in known formats (eg,
>> email) you just need to be able to look for strings that are part of the
>> protocol (like "Subject: ").
> 
> Yeah, I was thinking you'd need a small dictionary of some sample texts
> or material to scan the result each time for a cursory "Is this it?"
> type hits rather than gobbledygook.

Right.
-- 
derek