To ensure data security, there is nothing better than encryption. However, sometimes it can turn against us. That is exactly what happened in this case: the user stored highly important and sensitive data in an encrypted VeraCrypt file container. Since the data was not needed for daily use, a long period passed without access (according to the client, about a year), and the password was forgotten. More precisely, the user remembered the general nature of the password, but due to its length and complexity (letters, numbers, and special characters), they were unable to reproduce it accurately.

The password was definitely created in accordance with all data security recommendations (it was long – over 13 characters – and included uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and special characters). A standard brute-force attack would be virtually impossible due to the extremely long time it would require.

Having an approximate idea of the password’s length and structure, we used artificial intelligence to generate a dictionary of likely password candidates. From that list, we then identified the correct one through a selection process.