old version of AXCrypt versus new one

[Bruno L]

Hi

I am using AXcrypt since a long time, and I was happy about it. As I need to install it again on another computer, I realize that the new version ask for the password when we start the application, and it oblige us to use this same password for all the file.

When I open a file encrypted with the old axcrypt, the system ask me to change the codification and to encrypte it with the password given at the begining ( and not to keep the original one if it is different.)

I understand that with the new version we have to use allways the same password, which is known by Axcrypt organisation. With the old version we can have several password which can be different. (a simple and a very complicated one for the very confidential file)

Is there a possibility either to download the old version (to be installed on my new computer) or to make the new one work same as the old one (i.e. have the possibility to have several password on the same computer)

If I can have these “old” feature, I do not mind paying the new annual fee.

thanks in advance if you have a solution

[Dave]

This has been discussed extensively elsewhere. The old version is no longer being developed, no support is provided and it is not maintained.

• AxCrypt do not know your password for version 1 or version 2.
• You should use a very complicated for everything. With AxCrypt 2, you only type in your password once. That improves your security because having ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ passwords makes you much less secure.

The only solution is to use AxCrypt 2 or to look for some other, paid, encryption software which will do what you want.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Bruno L,

We don’t know your password with the new version either.

Concerning the use of different passwords, please see https://forum.axcrypt.net/blog/use-of-different-passwords/ .

You can still download the old version from http://www.axantum.com/ but it is essentially unmaintained.

[Peter Steier]

I have just encountered the same problem. I have many old encrypted files with different passwords. For some of them, I have shared the password with other people. I do NOT want to change them, and I do not want that they are all the same. And I do not want that anybody having access to my computer can read ALL encrypted files. The file-specific password should be asked whenever a file is opened. I find it unfriendly that your software has modified the files even when I only wanted to look at them. I have to restore them from the backup.

Maybe you have a different usage case in mind, but for mine the new policy is completely useless. Sorry but for me you have just broken the software. Concerning the statement that you do not know my password, I can believe yo or not.

 

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Peter,

It is hard to make super-simple software that also caters to every use case. We try to make it as simple as possible for as many use-cases as possible. We do maintain that the key sharing functionality is so much better than the shared passwords used with AxCrypt 1.

You can always turn of the “auto-upgrade” of old files, so you can maintain them unchanged in AxCrypt 1 format and with the old passwords.

Nobody with access to your computer can read any encrypted files as such, however, anyone with access to your computer with your user rights and permissions can install any software on it so if you allow that you are insecure by default, regardless of AxCrypt-version or other software used.

[Robert Baird]

I agree totally with Peter: you have broken the software by making it cumbersome! It is ridiculous that we must basically log on to Axcrypt every time we use it and that we must remember this complicated password you force the user to create when installing the software. You’ve taken what was once a simple encryption process where we were free to pick passwords each time we used it, and you’ve turned it into something that is not user friendly–apparently with the intent to push people to use your premium version.

I’ll search the internet for the older version. The url you gave for downloading the old version does not contain the older version.

[Harry]

It is ridiculous that we must basically log on to Axcrypt every time we use it and that we must remember this complicated password you force the user to create when installing the software. 

• If you think that it’s “ridiculous” that the AxCrypt software is secure then you should reconsider using encryption software.
• Strong passwords are good passwords.
• You don’t have to “log on to AxCrypt every time” you use it – it’ll remember your password for a predefined time.

I’ll search the internet for the older version.

• It doesn’t work on the latest version of Windows
• It uses 128-bit encryption
• It uses SHA-1 – which some people dislike
• It’s unsupported so, be warned

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Robert,

Thank you for your input!

To download the old, version 1, go to http://www.axantum.com/, click on the logo top left to enter the site and then to the download page. (Direct links to the download page *will* redirect to the new version 2 download page.)

I must agree with Harry on one point, when you say that it’s a problem that you “must remember this complicated password you force the user to create” that you should reconsider your use of encryption.

There’s no point in using encryption software with a weak, easy-to-guess password. It might make you feel safe, but you’re not. The point with requiring at least a reasonably strong password with AxCrypt 2 is just that – to make it very clear that a strong password is required for the software to have any effect!

On another pont I’ll disagree with Harry – has far as I know AxCrypt 1 does work with Windows 10, the latest version of Windows. However – we don’t test it, we don’t verify it, we don’t maintain it and we don’t support it.

[Robert Baird]

Perhaps you weren’t carefully reading what I said. I did not say it was ridiculous to use strong passwords. I use them all the time in conjunction with a password management utility. What I DID say was that I felt it ridiculous that you must login to Axcrypt using a strong password just in order to encrypt a file that I want to email to someone. I should be able to assign a strong password for the file after Axcrypt startup. Why must I log in to do this? Unless I intend to use Axcrypt as a password manager–which I don’t–then why is the login necessary? We should at least be given the option to install Axcrypt with or without the login requirement.

And what Harry said in his comment below is true: the old version works just fine in the current version of Windows. It’s too bad the developers of Axcrypt decided to make the new version so inflexible and to discontinue support for the old version. I’ll continue to use the older one for as long as it works.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Robert,

Sorry, but you meaning was not entirely clear about what was ridiculous ;-)

But the thing is – you then say “…just in order to encrypt a file that I want to email to someone…”. Well, provided that you do in fact care about the security of the file being sent, you must enter a password sometime.

With the old AxCrypt 1.x, in order to complete the sharing, you’ll have to agree upon and communicate that password. If you communicate with several parties, it soon becomes unmanageable. Also, each file thus encrypted will require you to know a separate password.

With AxCrypt 2.x, you “sign in” first. This then becomes the default password for encryption (and a little more, it verifies that you actually are using the right password, and not a typo).

Then, you select your recipients, identified by their email addresses to share with and add them as recipients. Each file thus encrypted will be openeable by your own secret password, and all the recipients separate own passwords – no need to keep track of different passwords, no need to communciate and/or agree on passwords. One password to rule them all!

Yes, it’s different. I think it is soo much better! But then I would, I guess, be a bit partial seeing as I am the lead developer of both the old and the new AxCrypt.

 

[Robert Baird]

Svante, I appreciate your taking the time to respond. I have long thought Axcrypt to be a quality product–and I still do. My point is that there are different purposes for using the software, as Peter noted, and not all purposes require a higher level of security. It would have been nice if you’d made provisions in the new design for people to have the option to continue using it the old way, but you didn’t. I don’t agree with that design decision.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Robert,

I appreciate the feedback, and we do try to adapt as best we can. There are several design decisions involved here, not 100% sure which one(s) are the critical ones here. I do think that disallowing passwords such as ‘password’, ‘secret’, ‘123’ and ‘a’ is an indisputably good design decision.

The other decisions, such as using the sign in metaphor for deciding on what password to use by default for encryption and decryption can of course be discussed, but what you can’t know is that it’s based on actual use of the “old” model. One recurring problem with the old model with the need to re-type your password every time an encryption was to be made and the only verification done was by typing it twice was that users mistyped (twice) and then lost their data.

The sign in metaphor allows us to verify that the password used is actually the same one as was used the first time. This has virtually eliminated the data loss caused in version 1 by mistyped passwords. It has also reduced the number of instances of lost data due to immediately forgotten passwords at first time use.

Finally, the design decision involved here with sharing is not requiring the sharing of actual passwords, is also in my mind a good one. However, here we’re open for allowing password sharing in addition, since we do see some cases where this would be beneficial. We have an issue for this, you can follow it here: https://bitbucket.org/axantum/axcrypt-net/issues/131/add-sharing-password .

[Bob_WA]

“I’ll continue to use the older one for as long as it works.”

Robert, have you thought about what might happen if one morning it doesn’t work?

[Graham Wilson]

After recently replacing my failed hard drive, I thought I would install the latest version of AxCrypt.    What a disappointment to find it no longer it does what I want and is so locked down and difficult to use.   Luckily I still have a copy of the older version so I’m about to uninstall the latest version and go back to the one I know

[Frank Dillon]

I have been using Axcrypt for years and really liked it.   I checked online  to see the latest version of Axcrypt and downloaded it.  I hope I am missing something because it appears to me that the files are protected by one password.   If this is correct, I am very disappointed.   I like to be able to use different passwords for different files.  Also in the previous discussions I don’t understand losing a file.   I have never lost a file in Axcrypt.

[Author]

Posts