<p>I ended up adapting gist.github.com/fcicq/3368495 to read from a file with a hundred thousand possible passwords (which I generated by permuting the inputs I was pretty sure I used to generate it in the first place).</p>

<p>It turns out that the wallet was double-encrypted, but this at least took care of the first layer, and then wallet-key-tool took me the rest of the way, by trying a few passwords by hand (once I found out the first password, the second was easier to guess/recall).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-09T18:08:12.417Z
2017-08-09T18:08:12.417Z
Steve
<p>I'm trying to check in on some BTC I stored in a blockchain.info wallet 4 years ago (12/2013).  I can log into my account just fine, but the wallet with my coins still needs a private key.  I've got a couple .aes.json files, but I haven't found any way to import them (best I found was something called "wallet-key-tool" that might work, but none of the passwords I tried did anything - could be bad password but could also be bad software).</p>

<p>I've also got a piece of paper with two sets of words: one with 29 words and one with 13.  I'm pretty sure these are related to the blockchain.info wallet, but I can't find any reference to this sort of recovery phrase (everything seems to want 12 words these days).</p>

<p>Finally, the last option would be to do a mini brute-force attack on the key.  I'm reasonably sure I could narrow the password options down to a few thousand - are there any command-line tools that can attempt to decrypt an .aes.json file and recognize when it worked or not?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-11T07:25:29.147Z
I adapted https://gist.github.com/fcicq/3368495 to read from a file with a hundred thousand possible passwords. Turns out the wallet was double-encrypted, but this at least took care of the first layer, and then wallet-key-tool took me the rest of the way. Hooray!
Steve
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-22T07:08:11.063Z
Hey Steve, congrats! This sounds like it could be useful to other people trying to recover their wallets. Could you please post your comment as an answer?
Murch
<blockchain.info><wallet-recovery><recover-private-key>
Trying to recover a blockchain.info wallet from 2013 w/ a 29 (or 13?) word phrase
Steve
# Trying to recover a blockchain.info wallet from 2013 w/ a 29 (or 13?) word phrase

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-06-11)

I'm trying to check in on some BTC I stored in a blockchain.info wallet 4 years ago (12/2013). I can log into my account just fine, but the wallet with my coins still needs a private key. I've got a couple .aes.json files, but I haven't found any way to import them (best I found was something called "wallet-key-tool" that might work, but none of the passwords I tried did anything - could be bad password but could also be bad software).

I've also got a piece of paper with two sets of words: one with 29 words and one with 13. I'm pretty sure these are related to the blockchain.info wallet, but I can't find any reference to this sort of recovery phrase (everything seems to want 12 words these days).

Finally, the last option would be to do a mini brute-force attack on the key. I'm reasonably sure I could narrow the password options down to a few thousand - are there any command-line tools that can attempt to decrypt an .aes.json file and recognize when it worked or not?

**Tags:** blockchain.info, wallet-recovery, recover-private-key

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I adapted https://gist.github.com/fcicq/3368495 to read from a file with a hundred thousand possible passwords. Turns out the wallet was double-encrypted, but this at least took care of the first layer, and then wallet-key-tool took me the rest of the way. Hooray!  
> **username_1**: Hey username_0, congrats! This sounds like it could be useful to other people trying to recover their wallets. Could you please post your comment as an answer?  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2017-08-09. Score: 2

I ended up adapting gist.github.com/fcicq/3368495 to read from a file with a hundred thousand possible passwords (which I generated by permuting the inputs I was pretty sure I used to generate it in the first place).

It turns out that the wallet was double-encrypted, but this at least took care of the first layer, and then wallet-key-tool took me the rest of the way, by trying a few passwords by hand (once I found out the first password, the second was easier to guess/recall).


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