The process of recovering passwords from data that have been stored or transmitted by a computer system.
In cryptanalysis and computer security, password recovery is the process of recovering passwords from data that have been stored in or transmitted by a computer system. A common approach is to repeatedly try guesses for the password. Another common approach is to say that you have "forgotten" the password and then change it.
The purpose of password recovery might be to help a user recover a forgotten password (though installing an entirely new password is less of a security risk, but involves system administration privileges), to gain unauthorized access to a system, or as a preventive measure by system administrators to check for easily recoverable passwords. On a file-by-file basis, password recovery is utilized to gain access to digital evidence for which a judge has allowed access but the particular file's access is restricted.
