Decrypt password

[girishenoy]

Hi Guys,

I've password encrypted by MD5.
I want to use the decrypted password in my script. How can i do that.

Please help....

[jamesedwards]

Hello,

There is no easy way to decrypt md5 as it is a one-way encryption type. If the password is simple then you could md5 a word dictionary and compare them other than that you'll need a faster computer to crack it.

[Thrillhouse]

Strictly speaking, md5 is not an encryption function. It's a hash function. The fundamental difference between the two being that an encryption function is meant to be undone whereas a hash function is not. The term 'one-way encryption' is misleading and can imply that the encryption can be "undone" which it cannot without using some suspicious methods.

[Rubberman]

Unix/Linux password encryption routines, whether MD5 hash based, or standard DES based, are strictly 1-way algorithms. There is no practical way to generate the originating plain text from the encrypted form. When applications need to validate a password so encrypted, they take the hash value from the stored encrypted version and use that as a key to encrypt the provided plain text password, then compare the two. They should string compare as equal if the password matches.

FWIW, the only practical way to determine the original password is via a dictionary attack, or getting the owner to disclose the password (social engineering attack). Brute force is an option, if you have serious computing power and a few zillions of years to wait... Personally, I use a combination of sanskrit and the silly nickname of a college buddy that only a few people know for my most important passwords. No dictionary attack would derive that, I'm quite sure!

[girishenoy]

Thanks for the reply guy.

[mrman]

Another way is to turn it to blob, save and then type a new password and go back to MD5 - easy.