Recover PDF Password for Mac finds any PDF password
updated 04:55 pm EDT, Fri March 27, 2009
Recover PDF Password ships
Eltima has released Recover PDF Password for Mac, software said to recover the passwords of protected PDF documents, even when unusually complicated or long. Successfully unlocked documents are accessible without printing, copying or editing restrictions. Different user-selectable approaches are used, including length, template or exhaustive searches, with the exhaustive option taking the most time.
Both templates and dictionaries can be used to reduce search duration. The program supports all character encodings, and can recover passwords entered with any input language or keyboard layout. PDF 1.7 files can also been cracked, including those with Unicode passwords and/or 256-bit encryption. The app requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and costs $40.
DMCA
03/27, 07:51pm (1 reply) reply
This is just a brute-force attack. Isn't this illegal?
albyrw
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2004
Uh, OK.
03/27, 08:33pm reply
So is the upshot of this app that no PDF files are secure?
Wonderful...
............G
Graybaby
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2007
No Password
03/27, 11:56pm reply
Have you ever received a PDF that's password protected and the person who sent it has NO idea what you're talking about?
WONDERFUL.
JeffHarris
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 1999
There is nothing illegal
03/28, 11:20am (2 replies) reply
There is nothing illegal about brute force password cracking. What is illegal is accessing something you're not supposed to.
If you have forgotten a password, this type of utility can be a live saver.
r00b69
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
Re: there is nothing
03/28, 01:57pm reply
The problem is "that you're supposed to" is very vague. If you legally come across a password protected file, there is nothing that prevents you from opening it. It is what you so with the file/info that may be illegal, or how you obtained it, but not cracking it.
Unless the password algoritm has been copyrighted. Then you'd be breaking the dmca or dcma or ymca or whatever it is called.
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
re: legality
03/28, 07:56pm reply
One thing that a lot of people seem to forget is that what is illegal in one region/country is legal elsewhere.
From their WHOIS information, Eltima doesn't appear to be based in North America - they're in the Ukraine:
10 Darwin Street, office 1
Kiev
Kyiv,01004
UA
Tel. 380.442353016
Now, as to whether brute-force password cracking is illegal in the US and Canada (don't forget us!) - I'm going to guess no, as long as you have a right to the document in question. But hey, I'm not a lawyer, here in Canada, the US, or the Ukraine. ;)
Dr. Fyzziks
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2009
Maybe
03/29, 08:12am reply
This is a tool that isn't here to sell as much as to educate people that sticking a password on a document doesn't mean it is safe.
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001