RE: decrypting the .dat file

"Rony Shapiro" <[email protected]> Wed, 22 Dec 2004 19:48:08 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.comp.security.passwordsafe.user
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hi Arnauld,

Short answer: The .dat file cannot be encrypted/decrypted all at once. A
workaround would be to export the .dat file to plain text and
encrypting/decrypting this with a program/algorithm that is available on
your target platform.

WARNING: Doing this is potentially VERY unsecure, as the decrypted data may
remain on the target machine, even after you've deleted the file.

Long answer: There's no need to guess, as the format of the .dat file is
fully documented in the files that come with the source code. Briefly, each
entry stored as a record of variable length fields. All are encrypted using
Blowfish with the same key, but each record has its own salt. 

Hope this helps.

	Cheers,

		Rony

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] 
> [mailto:[email protected]] On 
> Behalf Of Arnaud Sahuguet
> Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 5:43 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [Passwordsafe-users] decrypting the .dat file
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I saw some previous posting on this topic but no conclusion.
> 
> I agree that decrypting the .dat file may create some security issues.
> However, since PasswordSafe only runs on a windows platform, what
> happens when I am travelling with no Windows box around.
> 
> I would like to be able to decrypt the .dat file from any machine,
> from the command line for instance.
> 
> My guess is that the .dat file stores the passwords as ASCII, with AES
> or Blowfish encryption, and maybe some salting. I just would like to
> know which algorithm to use.
> Once again, without the password, the only way to crack the .dat file
> is to use brute force or dictionary attack.
> 
> regards,
> 
> Arnaud
> 



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