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I used btcrecover to extract the wallet file (wallet.aes.json) from a blockchain account and I have been running btcrecover with dictionaries of my making but it has been going on for weeks and I am running out of ideas on how to permutate what my wife and I think the password could have been. Is there a way to just manually transfer the btc from the old wallet into a new wallet we do have access to or is there any way to extract the password or private keys directly from the wallet file?

We have: the phone with the original wallet app installed, the wallet file pulled using btcrecover, access to the email to allow authorization to access, the wallet identifier that was sent to her email when she first signed up, the phone which has the wallet, the pin that was used for the wallet, and we know how much btc is in the account.

We do not have: The private keys, a backup file downloaded from the blockchain api, a recovery phrase (it was never set-up), 2fa enabled on the account, access to the wallet file on the phone (as the phone was not previously rooted and the files are hidden somehow).

I had a blockchain wallet on my phone and when I knew I was going to switch phones I had my wife make a wallet on her phone in advance so I could keep our btc in her wallet during my transition.

The day came and I transferred the btc to her phone. It made her feel special to have it on her phone so I let her keep it there for a while....until I needed it to make a purchase with a visa card I have linked to another account and I took her phone and used the pin to unlock it except....it didn't unlock. I was sure I was using the right pin because it was the same one she always uses but thought perhaps I just mistyped something. I tried a total of three times and then it said I was locked.....that was annoying so I brought the phone back to my wife to open it with her password and she said she used a different pin this time to be more safe but that she didn't remember which password she had used to set it up.....

we tried numerous different passwords manually with no success and then we reached out to the blockchain wallet customer support with a back and forth conversation that ultimately led to them saying they can not help and we should just keep trying passwords.

I have worked with a few friends tried have so far been able to successfully use btcrecover on a test wallet to download a wallet file and then use the brute force features on a dictionary file to discover the password (which is easy because I already know that password).

But now that I am trying it on my wife's wallet the dictionaries were taking too long so I rented virtual computers online which are faster than my own pc and then I was returned with "password search exhausted" now I am trying new dictionaries but I am worried that we may not get it. the more wildcards I put in the dictionary the longer it takes....

Also pywallet does not seem to be able to read the wallet file that comes from the blockchain wallet. I couldn't get it to work on any of my test wallets and so I have never tried that program with my wife's wallet.

Can anyone help!?

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    This is an example of a well-written question.
    – Willtech
    Jul 20, 2018 at 9:21

3 Answers 3

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Is there a way to just manually transfer the btc from the old wallet into a new wallet we do have access to

No.

You need at least one of the things you have none of

  • working wallet.
  • PIN or password for the wallet.
  • Recovery phrase for the wallet.

is there any way to extract the password or private keys directly from the wallet file?

No.

The brute-force guessing method you are using is the primary known method.

There have been alleged security vulnerabilities in the blockchain.info wallet but it is possible your wallets were patched to fix those issues. It may be a long shot:

Can anyone help!?

No,

You are already doing the right thing I think.

Unfortunately, from the perspective of the software designers, what you are doing is exactly what they must make every effort to prevent being possible. If you could easily do this, so could a hacker or someone who stole your phone.

Footnote. OP knows this - but it is a good idea to remind new readers:

The Blockchain.info website says

Your Backup Phrase is made up of 12 random words, and is an encoded version of your master seed (and an industry standard). It acts as a backup and allows you to access your bitcoins and ether regardless of the wallet software you’re using. In the event that you lose your password, or choose to use another wallet provider, your Backup Phrase is all you need to regain access to your funds.

Quick tip: You can find your 12 word Backup Phrase in your Security Center after creating your wallet. Write this phrase down and keep it somewhere safe.

(my emphasis)

I'd go further, practice wallet recovery and make sure you can recover a lost wallet before putting serious money "in" it.

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  • this is the answer I anticipated but I you know that I had to ask. If anyone has information contrary to this answer, please let me know. Thank you!
    – Patches113
    Jul 14, 2018 at 21:42
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    @Patches, Undoing that tick mark for a day or so would keep the question in the "unanswered" list which may mean more people get to read it. You can use the up-arrow instead to upvote my answer if you want to thank me. I like reputation-points but, like you, I also would like to see if there is anyone who knows a better answer.
    – RedGrittyBrick
    Jul 14, 2018 at 21:47
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Unfortunately there are several different versions of wallet.aes.json wallets from blockchain.info, and not all of them are supported by btc recover. (iteration count).

That means you might have tried the correct password with btcrecover giving you a false negative.

it is possible to modify the code of btcrecover to add the other iteration versions but you would need to study the original source code from blockchain.com gihub page that hosts the unused my-wallet source.

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You have the pin number and the phone with the wallet app so why can't you use those two things to access the wallet on the phone?

You say you have the wallet.aes.json file and also state that you do not have "a backup file downloaded from the blockchain api,". The wallet.aes.json file is the backup file.

Anyway if you can't login via the phone app you should consider outsourcing the job of bruteforcing the wallet file. Dave gets a lot of recommendations. He will likely have more efficient tools at his disposal. Like tools coded in C and GPU or FPGA accelerated.

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  • I can't access the wallet on the phone because of too many failed pin attempts. I think it allows 3 tries before it requires a password. I considered attempting to manipulate the app on the phone to allow me to use the pin again but I have not been able to find the app files on my phone...if anyone knows how to do it please let me know, I have a tester phone and wallet I can try that on. If the wallet.aes.json file is the back-up file, then can I use it to extract the password or the private keys? I will look into this Dave person, thanks for the tip.
    – Patches113
    Jul 19, 2018 at 4:43
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    @Patches113 the wallet.aes.json file is aes encrypted with your password. The password itself is not stored in that file.
    – Abdussamad
    Jul 19, 2018 at 11:09
  • thanks for the info, every extra bit of understanding helps...so I have seen tutorials where people with bitcoincore wallets use the backup file to open their wallet with a newly installed bitcoincore wallet. Is that because the bitcoincore wallet backups are not encrypted with a password?youtu.be/a08MlPSSULU
    – Patches113
    Jul 19, 2018 at 20:30
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    @Patches113 not by default but you can encrypt them with a password. you're not using bitcoin core so it's not relevant to your situation.
    – Abdussamad
    Jul 20, 2018 at 10:16

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