Ultimate Extract and Recover 6.0

Overview

Forgetting a password can sometimes lead you to a dead-end for your tasks, whatever they may be. But if they are important, you have to try and recover the password in any way possible. This program right here, Ultimate Extract and Recover, will help you retrieve passwords from RAR files by using the dictionary attack method. This type of attack is basically using a wordlist (a text file containing a long list of words, and combinations of characters in general) and goes through all of its contents to check which one works.

Installation

Straightforward and easy installation that consists of very few steps and no advanced settings at all. The program is 100% clean from viruses, spyware and other types of malware. It doesn’t contain any additional 3^rd-party software either, so you can safely get this piece of software and install it without worries. When installation finishes you will be asked whether you want to visit
Ultimate Extract and Recover online tutorials page.

UER has no special requirements to work; all you need is a computer running Windows.

Interface

Unfortunately there is no shortcut on the Start menu, so to open the program go to the installation directory, open the folder named “bin” and run UER.exe. A command line window will open; wait a few moments and then the main window will appear.

UER’s interface is really simple; there are no signs of graphics or features that would make the GUI attractive. After setting the folder containing the RAR archives you want to extract and the folder to move the extracted contents (by clicking on the “input Directory” and “Output Directory” buttons correspondingly), click the “Go!” button to start the recovery process. A progress bar will appear and information regarding the process will be displayed in the command-line window.

There are a few settings on the main window that you can configure if you wish, such as enable test mode.

Pros

Processing of multiple archives at once is possible, since you select a directory and not a single file. All RAR files in that directory are going to be scanned.

To unlock an archive, UER uses dictionary attack. The initial wordlist that comes with the program is too small, so you need a bigger one for more chances of succeeding.

Available settings include remembering Input/Output directories, deleting extracted archives and moving extracted files into folders with the same name as the archives, as well as logging found passwords in a text file. There’s one more option available called “Test Mode”, which disables all previous settings and is used for verifying the integrity of archives. Check this option if you only want to find a password of an archive and not extract its contents.

Cons

The GUI could use some improvement and a shortcut for the executable should be created during installation. In addition, it is only capable of scanning RAR files and no other types of archives.

Alternatives

For unlocking ZIP files, Appnimi ZIP Password Unlocker (free) is recommended, although it has very few chances of finding longer passwords (5-6 characters or more) since it uses brute-force attack. CRARk (free) is another utility for Windows, Linux and Mac users that can unlock RAR and 7-ZIP passwords, but it uses brute-force method too so it’s pretty much useless for longer passwords.

Conclusion

Ultimate Extract and Recover is as good as your wordlist is. It has a few nice features, and provided that you have a good dictionary at your possession it’s a really strong tool.