How to unlock a rar file without password on Windows 11?

Okay, you can use rar2john + John the Ripper as RAR password unlocker.

First, you need to extract the digital fingerprint of the password from the encrypted RAR file, which is known as the "hash value". To do this, use the rar2john .exe tool. You need to open a command prompt or PowerShell window in the folder where John the Ripper is installed, and run a command similar to the following:

bash

.\rar2john .exe "C:\path \to \your\file .rar"

This command will output a very long string of characters - this is your hash value. It's like removing the lock from the RAR file and handing it over to John for inspection.

Step 2: John Ripper starts working

Now, input this hash into John Ripper. It is actually the actual RAR password cracking engine. John will attempt with a large number of common passwords, and this type of attack is called a dictionary attack. The basic command is roughly as follows:

bash

john -- wordlist =path\to\wordlist .txt hash .txt

This will inform John to compare each password in the dictionary with the hash value you provide. If your password is simple, such as "password123" or "qwerty", then John is likely to find it quite quickly.

Although this is a powerful and free RAR password unlocker, it also has some drawbacks. Essentially, it is a purely guessing game. If your password is long, random, or not in the dictionary, JohnJohn may take an extremely, extremely long time to crack - we're talking about possibly days, months, or even years, especially when RAR files use modern RAR5 encryption. You can speed up the process by using Hashcatcat in combination with GPUs instead of just using JohnJohn alone, but this brings another layer of complexity.