akorbiel Posted September 15, 2009 Share Posted September 15, 2009 I need assistance to decrypt backed up data files (mostly image files such as jpg) that have been encrypted using windows XP utility, EFS Encryption, by following these steps: 1.) right-click on a file 2.) select properties 3.) click on "advanced" in the attributes section. 4.) select "Encrypt contents to secure data" All files have been copied to an external disk, then the computer was reformatted and restored to factory condition. I found out that I no longer have access to these files (they appear green in windows explorer). I am not able to decrypt my files. How can I decrypt these files without the original key? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted September 15, 2009 Share Posted September 15, 2009 Windows XP will use an RSA 1024bit key by default. Providing it's implemented correctly, all hope is lost. As far as I am able to tell it has been implemented correctly. Your only real hope would be to recover the key for the disk using file recovery software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ansichild Posted September 15, 2009 Share Posted September 15, 2009 Encryption is meant to keep people out of your data. It works well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted September 15, 2009 Share Posted September 15, 2009 You could try this, but I don't see much hope: http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html If you don't back up the certificate keys to the EFS then the data will be useless to you if you ever have to recover your system from scratch http://www.nacs.uci.edu/security/New_Pages...forWindows.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimmer Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Just wait for end user level quantum crypto... then you can crack it... oh wait never mind ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Sierakowski Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Yep, same thing happened to me with one of my user accounts, had 1 encrypted account and my windows install blew up. In the words of the famous poet slipknot, all hope is gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted September 16, 2009 Share Posted September 16, 2009 Just ask beakmyn about not backing up your encryption key.... :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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