Need help with encrypted wallet.dat. I can't access it with my expected pass-phrase

I created an offline wallet in 7/13 via a Ubuntu live CD. I recently imported the encrypted wallet.dat file into the bitcoin-qt wallet on Windows 7. Coins appeared. But, my expected passphrase is incorrect. At first I though I mis-recorded it or mis-typed it at inception. I have contacted a service to try to brute force it. However, I just went to restore and access my offline LTC wallet and same thing. Coins appear but passphrase is wrong. Same mistake twice seems pretty unlikely. Is there any other mistake I could have made that led to this? Please help me brainstorm.

Edit: I think I figured out I may have done.

1. encrypted wallet 
2. copy wallet.dat 
3. change passphrase 
4. did not make new copy of `wallet.dat`

First encrypted copy would not decrypt with the new passphrase. Unfortunately, at that time I would not have grasped the consequence of resetting the passkey (ie re-encrypting the wallet.dat) and not creating a new backup of wallet.dat.

Edit 2: As a follow up it was a passphrase issue (mistyped twice at encryption). I was able to discover the actual passphrase by using the ruby script from this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85495.

See my post # 312 for the details if you need help solving this kind of problem. The folks in that thread are very helpful.

Much thanks to all who helped. It was a stressful and frustrating experience - from which I learned a lot. :)

tjc

Posted 2013-12-06T03:46:33.210

Reputation: 21

1It's possible that Ubuntu uses a different keyboard layout to the one you're trying to open the wallet on. The letters you think you're typing are actually not the ones the computer is seeing. Have you still got the Ubuntu boot disk? If you have, boot into it, open a text editor, and type the password. Make sure it appears the exact same way as you're typing. Symbols, punctuation, and the characters on the lower left of your keyboard are the ones to check most vigerously. This is a very plausible explanation, and has caught me out in a different situation perviously. – Anonymous – 2013-12-06T03:51:27.520

Good idea, others have suggested the same. I booted into the same old laptop with the same live CD. Passphrase typed the same - i even went so far and ran bitcoin-qt, downloaded the block chain. Still sees it as wrong passphrase. I appreciate any and all ideas to help me brain storm. – tjc – 2013-12-06T03:56:39.060

Answers

As a follow up I was able to discover the actual passphrase by using the ruby script from this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85495.

See my post # 312 for the details if you need help solving this kind of problem. The folks in that thread are very helpful.

Much thanks to all who helped. It was a stressful and frustrating experience - from which I learned a lot. :)

tjc

Posted 2013-12-06T03:46:33.210

Reputation: 21

Checkout pywallet. Its a python script that may be able to help you out. It can be used to extract the private key. Additionally, you could try using an older version of the bitcoin client. I had a similar problem happen when moving an OSX bitcoin wallet to a new OSX client.

You're next west bet is do start guessing mutations of your password with a tool such as John the Ripper. For example if the true password is 'p4ssw0rd123', and you type in 'p4ssw0rd321', you can define rules that will iterate over such a search space. (Honestly only do this if you have a whole lot of coins sitting in that wallet.

https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet

mosca1337

Posted 2013-12-06T03:46:33.210

Reputation: 463

I used pywallet to dump the addresses and private and public keys. But the private key prints as "encrypted_privkey". When I try to import that into a blockchain.info wallet I get "Error importing private key: Unknown key format." I assume I can not decrypt the privkey without the correct passphrase. Is that right? – tjc – 2013-12-07T14:41:23.817

Yea unfortunately, you will need the passphrase. If you believe the wallet has enough coins and is worth recovering, you can try a dictionary attack with mangling rules if you believe you know what 'kinds' of passwords you typically choose. – mosca1337 – 2013-12-07T20:46:12.897

"I had a similar problem happen when moving an OSX bitcoin wallet to a new OSX client" - so you had same passphrase working in old client, but not working in the new? – dk14 – 2015-11-04T04:50:57.377

Despite this being a mistyped password issue, I want to bring some keyboard issues to everyone's attention (which can easily cause strong password transposing errors):

Android keyboards English US & English UK have different symbol positions

U.K.

`1234567890-= ¬!"£$%^&*()_+

qwertyuiop[]\     QWERTYUIOP{}|

asdfghjkl;'          ASDFGHJKL:@

zxcvbnm,./         ZXCVBNM<>?

USA

`1234567890-= ~!@#$%^&*()_+

qwertyuiop[]\    QWERTYUIOP{}|

asdfghjkl;'      ASDFGHJKL:"

zxcvbnm,./       ZXCVBNM<>?
Apparently TeamViewer login gives a different keyboard in some cases

Wizard Of Ozzie

Posted 2013-12-06T03:46:33.210

Reputation: 4 535