Complete · Technology
Cracking the Uncrackable
A client once paid me in Bitcoin and I lost the wallet. So I bought a stranger's forgotten, password-locked one instead. Five posts on how wallet recovery works, from password guessing to Hashcat.
- 01 Cracking the Uncrackable A client once paid a $100 invoice in Bitcoin. I lost the wallet — now worth over a million dollars. After mining earned me fifteen cents, I bought a stranger's forgotten, password-locked wallet instead, hoping to crack it. Nov 2, 2020
- 02 Cracking the Uncrackable – Background Before trying to crack a Bitcoin wallet, it helps to know why recovery is possible at all. A 256-bit private key is beyond guessing, but Bitcoin Core wraps it in encryption keyed to a password — and that password is where recovery starts. Nov 9, 2020
- 03 Cracking the Uncrackable – Password Guessing You set a password on your Bitcoin wallet, forgot it, and now Bitcoin has exploded in value. If you remember pieces (a few words, a birth year), btcrecover can build every likely combination from a token list and test each against your wallet. Nov 16, 2020
- 04 Cracking the Uncrackable – Hashing Setup When guessing passwords by hand isn't enough, bring out the big guns: Hashcat. Extracting a hash from a Bitcoin wallet with bitcoin2john, setting up the attack — and why it can take until the next big bang. Nov 23, 2020
- 05 Cracking the Uncrackable – Hashtopolis In part 5 of our Bitcoin series, we leverage Hashtopolis to distribute a cracking operation across multiple independent machines. Nov 30, 2020
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