# GBDE Password Lost



## mattruut (Nov 28, 2013)

Hi,

I have a GBDE encrypted partition that I can't access. My computer reset itself the day before I was set to backup everything on this partition and now I can't reattach it to the system. 

While I don't think that the GBDE partition can be modified or changed without having the current password, I'm hoping somebody can suggest something that will let me recover the data on that drive. The drive is still good, I just don't have the password to mount it.

My other question is, if I can't mount the drive in an easy way, can I attempt to brute force the password with a script and the `gbde attach` command? Will the system lock out any further attach commands after a certain number of wrong attempts, or can I leave the system working until it gets the right password? I have a rough idea of what the password was, but I can't remember (or find) it exactly.

Thank you to anybody that can help.

Matt


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## SirDice (Nov 28, 2013)

mattruut said:
			
		

> While I don't think that the GBDE partition can be modified or changed without having the current password, I'm hoping somebody can suggest something that will let me recover the data on that drive. The drive is still good, I just don't have the password to mount it.


If there was a way to do this the encryption would be rather useless don't you think?


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## mattruut (Nov 28, 2013)

Yes, yes it would.

While I'm hoping somebody has some helpful suggestion, I'm aware that I've probably lost everything. I'm asking for suggestions simply to make sure I haven't missed anything I could attempt.


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## fonz (Nov 28, 2013)

For what it's worth: even if you have a rough idea of what the passphrase must be, brute-forcing it can be a pain. I speak from experience  Have you read the GBDE manual pages? If so, do they mention anything about a lockout after so-and-so-many failed attempts?


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## mattruut (Nov 28, 2013)

fonz said:
			
		

> For what it's worth: even if you have a rough idea of what the passphrase must be, brute-forcing it can be a pain. I speak from experience  Have you read the GBDE manual pages? If so, do they mention anything about a lockout after so-and-so-many failed attempts?



I haven't found anything that mentions failed attempts. 

The said, the other problem I have is that I'm not sure if the lock file or the drive partition is good. The system shut down due to a power outage, so nothing was cleanly dismounted. The `gbde attach` command doesn't give any error messages when I enter in a passphrase. So I'm not sure if I'm entering the wrong password or if there's a problem with the partition, or the lock sectors, etc. I'm guessing it is a password error, but I already tried to brute force the password based on what I can remember of it (first four or five letters) with no success.

Is there a way to at least get some log messages from GBDE that can confirm that my passphrase is wrong, or if there's some other problem here?

I'm just glad there's nothing really important on that drive.


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## SirDice (Nov 29, 2013)

I haven't used GBDE much but if the password is accepted and the *.bde device is created I'd say the password was correct. You may need to fsck(8) the filesystem first though, it's probably marked 'dirty' preventing you from mounting it.


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## fonz (Nov 29, 2013)

mattruut said:
			
		

> Is there a way to at least get some log messages from GBDE that can confirm that my passphrase is wrong, or if there's some other problem here?


I don't use GBDE myself (I'm a GELI man) but I can't find anything in the manuals about verbosity either. If all else fails, perhaps you could ask the Great Dane who wrote GBDE. His address is at the end of gbde(4).


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## zspider (Nov 29, 2013)

Encryption is a lot like playing with fire, it's quite easy to hurt yourself if you make a mistake. Although as others have suggested it could be as simple as a dirty filesystem, refusing to mount.


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