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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.


by MacNN Staff

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Comments

  1. albyrw

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Dec 2004

    +1

    DMCA

    This is just a brute-force attack. Isn't this illegal?

  1. Graybaby

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2007

    +2

    Uh, OK.

    So is the upshot of this app that no PDF files are secure?

    Wonderful...

    ............G

  1. JeffHarris

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 1999

    -1

    No Password

    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.

  1. r00b69

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2006

    +2

    There is nothing illegal

    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.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0

    Re: there is nothing

    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.

  1. Dr. Fyzziks

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2009

    +1

    re: legality

    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. ;)

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    +1

    Maybe

    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.

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