Topic: Can I ever recover my Bitcoin? (Read 195 times)

I understand how tough this must be, but the chances of recovering your Bitcoin are slim without the correct passwords. While there may be minor vulnerabilities in older versions of software, it's unlikely that a security flaw would help in your situation. Your best option might be to work with a professional recovery service, but be cautious of scams. Keep trying to remember the passwords, as that's your most reliable path to access.

Cryptanalysis
Clues from File Metadata
Rainbow Tables
Find from Github

No offense, but if you had just sat down with a pen and paper one day a week and tried to reconstruct the passwords you used at the time or the places where you saved them, you might have been a lot closer to the solution than you are now. Waiting for a vulnerability to appear in the programs you used is something you may never see.

If none of the advice in this topic works, maybe you can try something that comes out of the domain of technical experiments and is called hypnosis - with the help of such a procedure, some people can remember things that they have completely forgotten. Some will say I'm talking nonsense, but in your case you need to grab every straw that exists.

He has more good things than others, who don't have a single backup, but practically if he wants to try doing something with wallet recovery or decrypt it, whatever by himself or any wallet recovery service, he needs to make copies of backup. Do some copies and use them for decryption or recovery, it's helpful to avoid current backups to be broken by any process.

Backup, copies of backup.
When you play with backups, do it with backup copies. It does not harm anything if you spend some seconds to copy your backup.

I see it at least as an advantage that OP seems to have enough digital copies of his wallet and archives so that a loss of those files isn't likely. Some users don't even have backups at all!

The problem of course is, why on earth wasn't the encryption passwords or passphrases not backed up. I mention this not to rub salt in OP's wounds but to emphasize that you can't rely on your human memory and such details need to be properly backed up in analog and redundant fashion!

If you don't want to trust someone else, get familiar with JohnTheRipper and Hashcat and how to smart crack your ZIP archive's encryption password. The password cracking for fun community of those tools is quite helpful if you need assistance.

Btw, use those tools responsibly and in a secure environment. Don't expose valuable encrypted archives to unsecure daily internet shit devices! Verify the authenticity of those tools the same you should do with wallet software!

Now probability of success largely depends on the potential complexity of the password and what you remember of it. Was it random? Was it human created (many users aren't particularly creative with their passwords, they often re-use stuff or have some more or less good scheme with only minor variation in certain parts)?

Just doing dumb brute-force can only succeed if the encryption password was rather short. If you have no idea what your password could've been, well that's not a good starting point. Also, you could've forgotten that you actually have documented it. Are you sure you didn't write it down or any hints about it? Think about it: why wouldn't you write it down? Hm, because it was a password you thought you can't forget? Think harder: why wouldn't you forget that password? It was maybe something you used commonly? And so on...

It's possible to crack even long passwords, but only if you have some clues or knowledge of what building blocks your password was made of. This is where rule or pattern based password cracking can shine. But again, success rate and cracking time heavily depend on what you remember how your password could've been and of course how powerful the cracking gear is.


P.S.
If you try to crack it yourself, I highly recommend to verify if you're actually able to find a solution. What I mean is: prepare a model case with an encrypted ZIP archive where you know the encryption password (make it somewhat simple but not too simple); do all your cracking stuff as if you don't know the password but only have clues of it sufficiently to crack using brute-force or rule/pattern attacks.

You should be able to find the model case solution and crack the password. If you fail at the test sample, how are you supposed to succeed with the real deal?

Your zip archive must have been password protected, and as you can see, you have lost this password too. What can we talk about after this? When making dozens of copies, you need to understand that as soon as you need to open these files, you will need a password, and you also need to store them separately.
This is the case when "the best becomes the enemy of the good." That is why in our time it is suggested to make complex passwords and store them, rather than regularly change passwords. In the same way, creating dozens of copies without an important key also makes no sense.
Have you considered starting to invest again instead of regularly pulling out your hair?

If you managed to bypass the zip password then you can recover your bitcoin in that wallet but if not then there's no chance you can recover your funds. You can try asking different people who can bypass the password in the zip file as the algorithm of the zip is good and it won't be easy to do it. Using brute force would be your best choice and you should find someone you can trust about the zip file and if the person did manage to do it then you should use different wallet by creating a new one.

It largely depends on the amount of Bitcoin that the OP has in that wallet. Is it even worth dealing with it?
If you were to hire someone to brute force the zip archive and wallet file, it could cost them more than the amount of coins in the wallet. There is so much talk about hacking, that many people think that it is a simple matter and there are people who only need 10 minutes to break any password or locked file.

In addition to what @ FatFork has said about  the weak password factor, it might also be possible that the encryption algorithms used as at that time are now outdated. If that is the case, then you still have a chance of recovering your password. Know that your Bitcoins are not lost yet, you just don't have access to them for now pending when you are able to recover your password. While you go about seeking for help on how to get access to your Bitcoins, beware of scammers. Goodluck

Remember all the password patterns that you use(names, numbers, dates etc.). And use a program like John the Ripper.  I wish you luck.

That is very doubtful. Both Electrum and the Zip Archiver use advanced encryption algorithms that are considered to be very secure. The biggest weakness in your setup is likely the password strength for both the Electrum wallet and the Zip archive. If you used weak or short passwords, those should be your primary focus for breaking the protection. But know that brute-forcing a password can take a lot of time and computer resources, depending on the password length and complexity. The more you remember about those passwords - length, any special characters, if you used any words or phrases, etc. - the better your chances. Every little detail helps, but there's no guarantee of success. 

You can save many backups but in your wallet recovery, you need access to it, and are able to decrypt these locked backups. If you fail, you can not recover your wallet, and you will lose your bitcoin.

Find someone, or a service that can help you to bruteforce passwords of your Electrum wallet file, or Zip archive file. Do it with a trusted person or a trusted wallet recovery service.

If you need a service, you can try this service.
Bitcoin Wallet Recovery Services - for forgotten wallet password

Many years ago I doomed my Bitcoin and lost access to them. I have nothing left besides the locked Electrum file, a locked Zip Archive containing my private keys in plain text and my public key. I am tearing my hair out for years now. I thought I was safe if I create multiple types of storage. The Zip archive and the Electrum file have different passwords too if I remember it right. The seed is also in my Zip file since I thought I can just save it on many USBs instead of a paper. The risk of one USB failing wouldn‘t bother me. I also thought I can somehow proof ownership with my public key since you can not get it unless the wallet has a spending transaction. I didn‘t know what I was thinking. I was never really technical into Bitcoin. Like a guy who uses a smartphone but doesn‘t know how it looks inside.

No need to judge me, it was a stupid idea to save it that way but it was also more like a gimmick to me. I believed in Bitcoin and I never throwed anything away although its locked. I saved my stuff on so many USBs.

I know a guy who is a bit technical and he told me that there might be a small chance that a security flaw will be discovered since I created my wallet with a early version of Electrum and the locked Zip archive was also created around this time.

What do you guys think? Do you think there will ever be a security flaw within the implementation of the Zip encryption or early versions of Electrum?

Of course I am aware of scammers and I will not hand out my files to anyone.