Howto Crack pdf File Password
Posted by admin on April 14th, 2008 
Email This Post
pdfcrack Features
Supports the standard security handler (revision 2 and 3) on all known PDF-versions
Supports cracking both owner and userpasswords
Both wordlists and bruteforcing the password is supported
Simple permutations (currently only trying first character as Upper Case)
Save/Load a running job
Simple benchmarking
Optimised search for owner-password when user-password is known
Install pdfcrack in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install pdfcrack
This will complete the installation.
pdfcrack Syntax
pdfcrack -f filename [options]
pdfcrack Options
-b, - -bench - Perform benchmark and exit.
-c, - -charset=STRING - Use the characters in STRING as charset.
-m, - -maxpw=INTEGER - Stop when reaching INTEGER as password length.
-n, - -minpw=INTEGER - Skip trying passwords shorter than INTEGER.
-l, - -loadState=FILE - Continue from the state saved in FILENAME.
-o, - -owner - Work with the ownerpassword.
-p, –password=STRING - Uses STRING as userpassword to speed up breaking ownerpassword (implies -o).
-q, - -quiet - Run quietly.
-s, - -permutate - Try permutating the passwords (currently only supports switching
first character to uppercase).
-u, - -user - Work with the userpassword (default).
-v, - -version - Print version and exit.
-w, - -wordlist=FILE - Use FILE as source of passwords to try.
pdfcrack Examples
pdfcrack test.pdf
pdfcrack options and examples
If you want to be notified the next time we write something please subscribe to our RSS feed.Thanks for Visiting!
January 30th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Hiya,
I get an error message “First trailer not found.”
what to do?
Erik
February 11th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I’n no Guro but i would like to help. What command are you typing in?
April 15th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Hi.
I was once told that one may omit the PDF password functionality by simply using ImageMagick (’convert pdf_with_password.pdf pdf_without_password.pdf’). This won’t find the password for you, but will help you read the PDF.
June 16th, 2008 at 6:38 am
luv u 4 this!
July 4th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
using a dictionary from The Argon Word Lists will tend to get much faster results.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:40 am
any options for adobe digital additions downloads? pdfcrack and imagemagick convert produce error: unknown security handler.
Anyone know how to convert those into regular pdf’s? even after purchaceing them they can only be read on an authorised machine with digital additions. Try to open them like a regular pdf and they are password protected
July 13th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
@ Asbjørn
Many thanks for your Tip. It did, indeed, work for me. Imagemagick solved the problem astonishingly simple.
Best.
ps: Just for the record. I assume the success does depend on the encryption method, though. Since I could ’see’ the content of my pdf’s but was not allowed to manipulate them (extract particular pages, copy text, etc.) it worked like a charm.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I guess that’s what all that processor power in a home pc is for…