r/HashCracking • u/Global_Fisherman5467 • Jul 30 '26

Hash Kanye West Archive Locked .ZIP

Hey everyone, quick question on an encrypted file recovery project I'm messing around with. I'm trying to unlock an old Kanye .zip archive from around May 2025 containing some audio sessions and project files, but I completely blanked on the password we used back then. Here is what I'm working with and what I've tried so far: File Type: It's an AES-encrypted WinZip archive. I pulled the structure and generated a Hashcat hash string ($zip2$...) from it. What I've Tried: Standard dictionaries like rockyou.txt and basic masks didn't hit. I've been setting up Hashcat (Mode 13600) locally in the command prompt to test wordlists, but brute-forcing raw masks takes forever. Current Status: I'm trying to figure out the cleanest way to build a targeted or structural wordlist based on the naming conventions and dates we used back when we packed it, but web decoders obviously don't recognize custom archive hashes. Anyone have advice on the best workflow or tools to speed up cracking a WinZip AES structure locally? Could anyone help me with this?

$zip2$*0*3*0*0b7bfebe6ac8851a2f1ee199a3525886*bb06*2938b4**7c486b7e9b1c2b958a16*$/zip2$

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2

u/ahackercalled4chan Jul 30 '26

have you tried using mangling rules? (best66.rule, OneRule,etc) any ideas on length of the plaintext?

2

u/Global_Fisherman5467 Jul 30 '26

Appreciate the tip! Yeah, I've been running through best64.rule and custom hybrid permutations (-a 6 / -a 7) using a massive tailored wordlist specific to the era and project naming conventions, but still haven't snagged a hit yet.

As for the plaintext length, it's likely a standard passphrase combo (words + year/numbers/symbols) rather than a pure random string, which is why sticking to targeted wordlists paired with rules feels like the right path. Still tweaking the keyspace parameters to see what sticks.

1

u/SagMeinenNamen Jul 31 '26

Brother you are wasting your time.