PDFCRACK(1)

💖 PDFCRACK — the password recovery tool for PDF-files, bestie 💖

okay so this is the manual page for pdfcrack, a General Commands Manual situation. yeah. we're doing this. sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get into it.

✨ NAME ✨

pdfcrack — Password recovery tool for PDF-files

like. it cracks PDFs. recovers passwords. that's the whole vibe. 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

pdfcrack [ -f ] FILE [OPTION]...

that's it. that's the shape of it. a file, some options, go. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

PDFCrack is a tool for recovering passwords and content from PDF-files. no cap. it literally gets you back into your own stuff. 👑

so here's the tea though, and this part is important, so listen up:

If you abort it with Ctrl-C or by it receiving a SIGINT signal, pdfcrack will automatically save its current position. that position gets saved in a file called savedstate.sav in the current working directory. so like, if you panic and smash ctrl-c, you're not starting over from zero. iconic behaviour honestly. 🫶

also, real quick: mandatory arguments for long options are mandatory for short options too. the long and short forms are the same deal, bestie. don't try to skip the argument just because you used the short one. it will not work. 💀

✨ OPTIONS ✨

one bullet per option, all of them, no skipping, we don't do that here:

• -b, --bench — perform benchmark and exit. like a little warm-up lap, then it dips. 🏃♀️
• -c, --charset=STRING — Use the characters in STRING as charset. you're telling it exactly which characters to try.
• -w, --wordlist=FILE — Use FILE as source of passwords to try. bring your own list, queen. 📝
• -n, --minpw=INTEGER — Skip trying passwords shorter than INTEGER. don't waste time on the tiny ones.
• -m, --maxpw=INTEGER — Stop when reaching this INTEGER passwordlength. that's the ceiling, bestie.
• -l, --loadstate=FILE — Continue from the state saved in FILE. pick up right where you left off. 🦋
• -o, --owner — Work with the ownerpassword. 👑
• -u, --user — Work with the userpassword (default). this is what it does unless you say otherwise.
• -p, --password=STRING — Give userpassword to speed up breaking ownerpassword (implies -o). it's giving shortcut energy. ⚡
• -q, --quiet — Run quietly. shhh. 🤫
• -s, --permutate — Try permutating the passwords (currently only supports switching first character to uppercase). that's the only permutation it knows rn, don't come for her.
• -v, --version — Print version and exit. quick lil flex, then gone. ✨

🌈 REPORTING BUGS 🌈

found a bug? not you being a detective 🔍 okay so you've got two options:

• shoot an e-mail to Henning Noren <confusion42@users.sourceforge.net>
• or report it on the project page at http://pdfcrack.sourceforge.net/

either way, we appreciate you. 💜

💅 AUTHOR 💅

Henning Noren

🎀 COPYRIGHT 🎀

Copyright © 2009 Henning Noren <confusion42@users.sourceforge.net>

This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

yes, that's a real all-caps NO WARRANTY. it means what it means. don't @ me. 😭

and that's the whole page, bestie. this one's from the User Commands manual, dated February 2009, and it's filed under PDFCRACK(1). mwah. go recover your passwords. 💖🌸🦋