Bruce Schneier
Password Safe FAQ
I lost my Safe Combination -- how do I get access to the database?
There is no back door in Password Safe to recover your Safe Combination, but there is a password-guessing program that some people have used successfully. The program works by going through a list of possible passwords and checking each one, so if you chose a strong Safe Combination, it won't work. The program is available at http://members.aol.com/jpeschel/recovery.htm.Password Safe can't find my database anymore, and asks me to create a new Safe Combination. How do I get the database back?
Your safe contents are stored in a *.dat file, where the asterisk is replaced by whatever name you gave the safe file when you first created it. Search for this file on your system. (If the file was deleted or corrupted, your only choice is to restore from a backup; but it's more likely that the path to the file is missing from your System Registry.)Once you find the file, you can do the following:
- Move it to the directory where the Password Safe executable is stored. (This is optional, but it means you'll know where the *.dat file is.)
- Start up Password Safe. It may ask you to create a password database. If it does, enter any random Safe Combination to create a temporary database.
- On the File menu, select Open, and open the *.dat file.
How do I move my password database to a new computer?
- Locate the *.dat file that contains the password database on your old computer. Then install Password Safe.
- When you start Password Safe, it will prompt you to create a password database. Enter any random Safe Combination.
- On the File menu, select Open, and open the *.dat file you located in step 1.
When will the next version be out?
Password Safe is now an open source project -- please see its Sourceforge page for more information.Schneier.com is a personal website. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of BT.
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