RAR Password Unlocker

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on October 17, 2012

RAR Password Unlocker detects and cracks lost or forgotten passwords protecting RAR archives. It offers three methods of tackling lost passwords: Brute Force, Brute Force with User-Defined Mask, and Dictionary mode, which tries password combinations against a built-in dictionary that you can customize. It can also automatically save and resume interrupted recovery operations and search for archives in your system. It's free to try, but the trial version only recovers the first three letters of the password and limits dictionary searches to 10,000 possible combinations. If that's enough to jog your memory, you're in luck. But if it isn't, you'll have to buy RAR Password Unlocker or try a different tool to recover lost RAR passwords.

RAR Password Unlocker's user interface is very basic, with few controls or options other than those directly related to the job at hand, recovering lost passwords: Open, Start, and Stop buttons in one segment of the toolbar; Help, About, and Exit (not to mention Purchase) in another. The main window has two tabs, Start Page and Search Files: RAR Password Unlocker not only recovers passwords from RAR files but searches your PC for archives. An optional Details pane offered instructions for each step, and the program's Help file offers more detail, though there's not a lot involved with running this simple tool. We started by running the search tool, which turned up all our system's RAR files, including this program's sample file. We browsed to a file and added it in RAR Password Unlocker. The program displayed its file path and other data and offered its three modes of attack. A Settings button opened a dialog with password options such as uppercase, special symbols, and Affix Set. We simply had to select our options and which method to use and click Start. The program's counter features hours, minutes, and seconds; it takes time to plow through every possible combination in a brute force attack.

Twice RAR Password Unlocker crashed on us; ironically, it was while running its sample RAR file. You have few other options for recovering lost RAR passwords, though, so it merits a look where there's a need.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of RAR Password Unlocker 5.0.

Publisher's Description

From Password Unlocker:

RAR Password Unlocker is to easily and safely recover the password for RAR archives for you to open and extract the files in the archive. It supports RAR files of all versions created using WinRAR.

It is easy to use that even a new user can fully control it in less than a minute. It is far different from other similar programs with multiple functions integrated in one. This is a little tool solely for recovering RAR passwords. With simple interfaces and clear instructions to guide you through the whole process of using it, you are fully easy to use it. Additionally, the manipulation is simple too. With three simple steps to enter full path of the RAR archive, select an attack type and start the processing will help you start the program to recover the password. Both integrated User Manual and online guide are available for you to refer to if run into any problems while using it.

The program can not only recover simple passwords in no time but is able to recover long passwords in a short time. The dictionary attack makes it customizable for users to solve their specific problems with a specific solution. This is rarely available and is the highlight of it, for you can create a dictionary file according to the password features to let it base on. The program also makes it possible for you to define a password mask, which is a set of password traces for increasing the recovering speed and saving time.

What's new in this version: Version 5.0 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.