Cracking P/W protected .zip or .rar files?

One of the folks at my work forgot her password to a zip file with some important docs in it. I checked to see if she had any copies of any of the contained docs outside of the zip and there are none. I have been given full permission to try to access this file.

Can anyone suggest anything I can do to break into this file assuming she used a strong password? Backtrack 3 or otherwise?

I have tried using some x86 based zip crackers with some password lists I have dug up and no luck as of yet.

Thanks in advance... please move this if I posted this in the incorrect forum

in one terminal type:
mkfifo crackpipe
crunch 1 100 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789 >> crackpipe
in another terminal substitute the wordlist in the .zip cracker for crackpipe.

it may take a while :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yottabit

it may take a while :p

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Hmm... might need to find a box I can put some extra ram in and start it up...

Then check to see if it figured anything out by next month lol :D

Thanks for the help!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TexRyker

Hmm... might need to find a box I can put some extra ram in and start it up...

Then check to see if it figured anything out by next month lol :D

Thanks for the help!

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yup, sit there, brute-force the file, and come back next X-MAS

Did the poster ever get anywhere on this ? I for one would be interested to see what
was used and how !

If the password is half way decent, cracking a file like this is going to take forever. Directions are in post #2.

well.. for interest's sake then :)

I am having trouble figuring out exactly what is meant in post #2

Have done quite a bit of searching on the forums and cant find any info on
how a crack could be actvated on an archive file.

I presume that a wordlist or the like could be included in one way or another ?

Sure you can head down to elcomsoft.. but it would be a lot nicer if it can
be done with command line no ?

Just interested in the outcome !