Unexpected Access

Something unbelievable just happened, haha. Things that often feel hopeless come around in the most unexpected way. You will try harder and harder to crack something, but you will fail a thousand times on this, but suddenly, one unexpected hit will make it open, which will feel like a magical occurrence.

Around 2022, I was first introduced to the security field specifically. So in the early days, everywhere I was poking was a security mindset. So, one day, I was storing all my personal data on my pendrive, I had zipped it into a password-protected file, almost 30GB of data. Seeing the importance of the data, I had set up a super complex password, a total of 18-character alphanumeric password with special characters. Three years passed, and I was never in need to open that stuff. Recently, due to a need, I sat down to explore that data, and guess what, I forgot the password. I clearly remember the possible combinations or common passwords I usually set. Even I had a notepad where I usually write down the passwords, that too in a zibberish way so no one else can get that and access everything easily, too many security concerns. lol. So I tried each and every password I could have ever come up with, and every one of them was incorrect.

📸 Dave Meckler

Can you imagine the loss? It wasn't any random files and stuff, personal data for which I specifically purchased a pendrive and was storing, and ended up forgetting the password. I was sad and laughing at the same time. It was around February or March when I tried to access the data.

Now, its 4.21 AM at the time of my writing this blog post. During 3.30 AM, suddenly I came across that pendrive, inserted in my laptop. Here we go again, a password prompt to access the stuff. Just a couple of hours ago, I took a strong cup of tea with coffee. So, I just guessed a different set of passwords depending on a few things from 2023 when I was backing up my data. And guess what, boom! I got access. It wasn't any normal pass, a proper strong pass, just a few random stuff that I had kept as a pattern, and out of nowhere it came to my mind today, and I just got the access.

Come on, I wasn't intended today for this, nor did I have any clue, or restored from any written place. Sudden encounter, sudden guesses, and boom. The most unexpected way to crack this one. Hahaha, funny stuff. Never will I keep such important stuff without documenting.

Time to sleep now....