#encrypted poetry file, #EFS, Encrypting File System, WindowsEncryption, #Will decryption be possible?
Why have I posted this two years later?I know that nothing can be done, in this case, orso I have concluded after all my readings about the Encrypting File system. but I had only the hope that I may find someone here, anyone, a cryptographer, most of all, of some renoun, who might have some trails or options, which can be taken, not in regards to proper, encryption, but in regards to the decryption of this file. Someone venturesome, someone who would be willing to try to decrypt this file, provided with this story, and my external drive. You can skip over the subjective preamble if you do not want my subjective considerations on this entire jumble. The preamble consists more or less on my thoughts regarding the loss in itself. I have written more than it was necessary.
SUBJECTIVE PREAMBLE
I would like to relate here, the story more or less, as I remember it, of how I have encrypted, two years back, my poetry file. Even if, at times, I felt pangs of despair that its content did not matter to anyone, anyone else besides myself. There are a miriad of ways in which I could have still preserved it, relating them here would not do, it would be more than pointless.
There is an upside to this whole loss, as there is an upside involved at the core of any loss, no matter how big or small it may happen to be. I began from a clean slate with my whole versification related projects. And, in some way, this is good, yet not entirely. I do not know what to do however.
Yes, I write with less intensity, and certainly the energy, which I have so liberally expended during the years when I began this file, firstly with sayings and pithy statements, and then with full-fledged poems, in the autumn of 2020, up to February 2023). I was always updating it, revising it, checking for errors, both style-wise and grammar-wise.
My enthusiasm for poetry, my current writings, my psychological state aside. I had to type out a preamble. For those friends who are reading this, and perhaps exasperatedly exclaiming, or ringing their hands, or face-palming in total and utter dismay, "Not again! Not again! You lost this file two years ago man. Go on. Go on. Move forwards. Move on. There are other things to do. Other poems to write. Stop mourning for your lost poems. For that damned file. It is past the time for crying about it." I have taken that piece of advice into account, and have followed it dilligently, if not only for their sake, at least, for my own sake and sanity. I have been writing, even though in my eyes, nothing matches up to what I lost.
I still do relapse into this state of absence, into the maw of regret, from time to time. Here and there, into 'this … vague stupor. If this analogy would do; if it makes sense, imagine losing a loved one. This experience is universal; relatable. For us, authors, writers, novelists etc, (I know. I know that there are droves of them! God damn it! Good ones or bad ones, overly-ornate or bland, of whatever stripe and shade, political or not, intense or not, writing out of caprice or out of some sense of superiority, etc, etc.) Everyone of us, does, in some sense, value their own work, and not only writers, everyone who loses something of this nature. In my case, I did have the conviction that others would enjoy my poems, and sayings. Now I am not so certain. But then, I was sure of my vocation. the question which someone reading this might have would sound something akin to: "what makes me special, or my case any different than others, the billions of other such cases?" I cannot answer properly. I do not know. I could say that nothing does, I could say that something does. No one can answer this question. No one, besides myself had the whole file, and I feel unqualified to answer it.
It is not the size which shall decide its inner value, or the value for other people, but the content, the energy I have expended in redacting it. Energy and enthusiasm which shall not return.
(PREAMBLE OVER)!
There were various mistakes, thousands of them, and most of them were amateurish. I have paid for them, for all of them. Mistakes which I have made in the whole process of encrypting this miserable file. Mistakes which took their toll on me. I could care less what I may have done differently. But whether truely the possibility of decrypting it, is absolutely zero, nul. That, is what I wish to know. I know no one who can manage it, and no method by which anyone might. I care in short, of its future, or if it may have any?
I could send my hard drive over, no problem there, but the rest, the rest seems futile. I could send it to someone who would attempt to decrypt it, yet I know not who would attempt.
I know of no cryptographer who really knows how to decrypt it, hard-core, under the hood, as the saying goes. Because computationally it is not feasible. Or, is it? Is there any ray of hope? Any chance that this might end in any other way, with the file decrypted, even if in a distant future?
The microsoft staff is so unresponsive, so blatantly uninterested that I better howl to the walls than contact them.
What I did was this.
I headed over to properties, and since I had a Windows 10 Enterprise edition, this option was available.
Under the security tab called encrypt contents to secure data, I checked that checkbox. And, yes, there was an alert saying, "This change might be irreversible". Even so, all things considered, I went on.
The file was encrypted. The alert to backup the certificate associated with the file came only the next day, or else, from what I can remember, it was hidden in plain sight, around the notification area, where I did not notice it. By the next day, I have forgotten all about it.
I found the worst time for this operation, since it was the period chock-full of university exams. When I was badgered with useless knowledge heaped on useless knowledge. I was prudent enough, in case this should go wrong to copy all the contents to an encrypted file beforehand. I forgot to mention that there might have been a field, where you could (optionally) input your password, your login passphrase. Though it would have to be checked. Someone with Windows might have to try this process, and specify exactly how it went, step by step, what was pressed, what were the stepps. Maybe I will, at some point.
I do remember the precise date. It was the Seventh of February, 2023. All my backups were ruined. Since what I copied on my HHD was the modified file, (the encrypted version), there is no other place where I may still find that file in its original state, in, meaning, in an undecrypted state. The file,even though encrypted was opening normally, without any prompts, or alerts, no password required, nothing. I deleted the unencrypted version then, sinde I thought it of no use. That was a big big mistake.
The only indication of it being encrypted was nothing more than a sort of lock-like icon above it, but since I have not noticed it, I assumed that all was fine.
I should have at least searched for a tutorial, or anything that smacks of documentation on how-to encrypt it, and what are the requirements. If I had done that, the accident would have been overted successfully. On the 19th, of the same month, I figured that I needed a reinstall, since my OS was slowing down. The friend, who lent me a hand at the time for some trivial matters,which required sighted assistance, (navigating through the bios), asked me, if I needed anything backed up. Or if I had everything in proper order. I replied, affirmatively.
The next day, I plugged in my 1 TB HDD, and the rest, is history.
I started searching in a frenzy for apps, ideas, algorithms, anything that might restore the file's certificate, or anything which might help me find the backup key, which, I set to be encrypted with the triple des-sha1 algorithm. In vain, all of it, the whole process, all the research, unless one counts the little knowledge I gathered. I have looked everywhere, under every single nook. Or, at least, I took as much info as I had patience to dig up. Nothing, since then, the 2023 Windows has been discarded. I switched to KDE Desktop.
The hard drive is there, still functional. Nevertheless, that file, cannot even be copied, or moved, or altered in any way, shape or form.
For any cryptographers out there, reading my post, with experience and a wide-ranging background in EFS encryption, or Windows-based encryption cipher, I would request assistance.
That was the purpose of this post. To find out if, in the future, or now, something may still be done, so that the file will see the light. Can anyone help me decrypt it, if I send the disk on which the file is over?