Encryption - know password but not software

philcsl

About a year ago I encrypted some files on a USB key just to try it out, they are not secret or important files, I just did it to see how it works. In the meantime I changed laptops and have no idea which software I used to encrypt them!

I know the password I used and the file is currently showing up on the USB key as imagefile.ed I tried searching to see if this was a common type but can't find anything.

There are multiple files on the USB but when I put it into the PC it just shows up with the one imagefile.ed file so I expect it has to be mounted.

I remember when I encrypted it initially I had some software on my PC, selected the file on the USB key to mount and I was then prompted for the password and then when I entered that it opened all files on the USB.

Does anyone know what I could have used or what I can use to recover the files?

Jonathan

Was it trucrypt?

philcsl

I've just downloaded trucrypt and its not that one, it was something similar though as I remeber it gave the option to mount the file and then enter my password. Thanks anyway

Overheal

check the essential free software sticky thread

Alun

Very, very occasionally you can get a clue as to what app created a mystery file like this by peeking into the first few hundreds of bytes with a hex editor or such like. Sometimes there'll be a snippet of text in there that will give away either the name of the app or the company name. It's worth a try at least.

JohnK

Was it a free or paid for application? Some apps I can think of are DriveCrypt (http://www.securstar.com/disk_encryption.php), BestCrypt (http://www.jetico.com/bcrypt.htm) and PGPDisk (http://www.pgp.com). All of those are ones you'd have to pay for though but I think PGP used to have a freeware version.

ressem

Files ending in .ed would suggest Paragon Encrypted Disk.

philcsl

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I should have mentioned it was free software I used. I most likely found it on www.download.com but have checked most of the ones there now and none seem to work.

I tried Paragon, Trucrypt, and PGP - also tried a Hex editor but nothing showing up.

If anyone else knows of any encryption which saves the encrypted image as imagefile.ed I'd appreciate it!

Cheers,

Phil

Alun

philcsl wrote: »

If anyone else knows of any encryption which saves the encrypted image as imagefile.ed I'd appreciate it!

A shot in the dark ... given the file extension could the two letters be the initial letters of the application name somehow? Encrypt Drive, say, for example?

Alun

It might also be possible to track it down using tools that examine the file signature.

See http://mark0.net/soft-trid-e.html for an example. This just examines the first few bytes of the file and looks for a particular sequence rather than relying purely on the file extension.