How to Recover Your Lost Bitcoin Passphrase Using BTCrecover and Hashcat: A Complete Guide

How to Recover Your Lost Bitcoin Passphrase Using BTCrecover and Hashcat: A Complete Guide

 

Losing your Bitcoin passphrase can be a distressing experience, but don’t panic just yet. There are methods available to recover your lost passphrase. In this guide, we'll walk you through two popular tools: BTCrecover and Hashcat. Both tools can help you recover your passphrase, provided you have enough information about the passphrase (like part of it, the structure, or patterns). We will cover everything you need to know, from installation to usage, for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

 

What You’ll Need Before You Start

 

Before we dive into the recovery methods, make sure you have the following:

• Access to your Bitcoin wallet: You’ll need access to the wallet you want to recover the passphrase for. If it’s a software wallet, you should have the wallet file or backup. If it’s a hardware wallet, make sure you have the device with you.
• A computer: The tools we'll be using work on Windows, macOS, and Linux, so you’ll need a computer running one of these operating systems.
• Basic knowledge of command-line operations: While we’ll guide you through every step, familiarity with terminal or command prompt commands will help.

 

Method 1: Using BTCrecover

 

BTCrecover is an open-source tool that helps you recover Bitcoin wallet passphrases and keys. It uses brute force and dictionary-based attacks, making it effective if you have any clues about the structure of your passphrase.

 

Step 1: Installing BTCrecover

 

To get started, you first need to install BTCrecover on your system. Below are the instructions for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

For macOS:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Install Homebrew (if you don’t have it yet) by pasting the following command:

   /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

3. Install BTCrecover using Homebrew:

   brew install btcrecover

For Windows:

1. Download the BTCrecover executable from the official GitHub page: https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover.
2. Extract the ZIP file and navigate to the folder where BTCrecover was extracted.
3. Run the executable (make sure you have Python installed).

For Linux:

1. Open a terminal window and install dependencies by typing:

   sudo apt install python3 python3-pip git

2. Clone the BTCrecover repository:

   git clone https://github.com/gurnec/btcrecover.git

3. Navigate into the directory:

   cd btcrecover

4. Install the required Python libraries:

   pip3 install -r requirements.txt

 

Step 2: Using BTCrecover to Recover Your Passphrase

 

Once BTCrecover is installed, you can begin recovering your Bitcoin passphrase by following these steps:

1. Run BTCrecover: Open a command-line window (Terminal on macOS, CMD on Windows, or Terminal on Linux), navigate to the directory where BTCrecover is installed, and run:

   python3 btcrecover.py

2. Specify the Wallet File: Provide the location of your wallet file (it could be a .dat file for Bitcoin Core, or a .json file for other wallets).
3. Set the Recovery Parameters: If you remember part of your passphrase or any clue (e.g., its length, patterns), specify it using BTCrecover’s options. Use flags like --passphrase or --keypool to limit the search space.
4. Start the Recovery: Once you have configured everything, start the recovery process by running:

   python3 btcrecover.py --wallet  --passphrase 

5. Wait for the Results: BTCrecover will begin trying all the combinations based on your inputs. Depending on the complexity of the passphrase, this could take some time.

 

Method 2: Using Hashcat

 

Hashcat is another powerful tool that can help you recover your Bitcoin passphrase. It uses brute force and dictionary attacks with GPU acceleration to crack hashes more efficiently. Hashcat works well if you know part of the passphrase or if you have hash data that can be cracked.

 

Step 1: Installing Hashcat

 

Below are instructions for installing Hashcat on macOS, Windows, and Linux:

For macOS:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Install Homebrew (if you haven’t already) by running:

   /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

3. Install Hashcat via Homebrew:

   brew install hashcat

For Windows:

1. Download Hashcat from the official website: https://hashcat.net/hashcat/.
2. Extract the ZIP file and navigate to the folder where Hashcat was extracted.
3. Run hashcat.exe using the command prompt.

For Linux:

1. Open a terminal window and run the following commands:

   sudo apt update

   sudo apt install hashcat

 

Step 2: Using Hashcat to Recover Your Passphrase

 

Once you have Hashcat installed, you can begin recovering your passphrase:

1. Get Your Bitcoin Hash: To use Hashcat, you need the hash of your Bitcoin wallet file. You can extract this using BTCrecover or any other hashing tool.
2. Run Hashcat: After you’ve got the hash, run Hashcat in the terminal (or CMD for Windows) using the following command:

   hashcat -m 11300  

   Replace with your hash file and with a wordlist (like the popular rockyou.txt file).
3. Start the Cracking Process: Hashcat will start trying to crack the hash using various attack methods and wordlists. This can take time depending on the complexity of the passphrase and the power of your hardware.

 

Tips for Successful Recovery

 

• Use strong wordlists: The success of your recovery largely depends on the quality of your wordlist. Make sure to use large and diverse wordlists that include common phrases, passwords, and patterns.
• Be patient: Cracking a passphrase can be a time-consuming process, depending on the hash complexity and the hardware you are using. If you have GPU support, Hashcat will work faster.
• Try all known information: Any known clue about the passphrase’s structure (such as length, character sets, or common words) will help narrow down the search space and make the recovery faster.