Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
November 24, 2017 at 13:28 in reply to: Not accepting password, even resetted from website, still no #8289
Hello Jeff!
Thanks for the screenshot. That helps a lot!
If you look at the title bar, it says [Offline]. This means that while you have changed the password on the server, you’re not allowing or having access to the server from the application, so it can’t update it’s notion of the reset password!
Please ensure that you have Internet access (at least once after the reset), and that you allow the application to access our server. How could it otherwise know that something has happened there?
November 24, 2017 at 12:02 in reply to: Not accepting password, even resetted from website, still no #8287Hello Jeff,
I can’t be sure of course, but I don’t think I’m misunderstanding.
It’s a fundamental, and vital, property of encryption that without the key (password) the data cannot be retrieved and the password cannot be reset.
There are two entirely different mechanisms at work here, both using a password.
1) Sign in to the service, this is a case of authentication. The server will programmatically allow access if it determines the password is correct. A password reset is easy to implement here, it’s just about re-instructing the server in a trusted way just what the correct password is.
2) Encrypting data using a password derived encryption key. Here the password is used to derive an encryption key, which is used in a mathematical algorithm to transform (encrypt) your data using the key as the secret parameter. There is no server granting or denying access here. It’s just that either you have the right key or you don’t. You can’t perform a password reset. You can perform a pasword change, which will imply that somewhere something is first derypted using the old known key, and then encrypted again using the new.
There’s a longer discussion here: https://forum.axcrypt.net/blog/encryption-vs-authentication/ about the distinction.
From your description of the situation, it sounds like you can sign in to AxCrypt just fine, but when you try to open a file, you’re getting a dialog stating that you need to provide the file password.
If this is wrong, and I am in fact misunderstanding – please provide screen shots of where you’re stumped, and / or contact our support so we can look at your particular account.
November 24, 2017 at 08:16 in reply to: Not accepting password, even resetted from website, still no #8285I am sorry to hear this.
If you do not remember the password to your account, you can always reset it. This is not a way to recover encrypted files! It’s only to allow you to sign in to the AxCrypt app and web. The new password will be used to encrypt new files. Go to https://account.axcrypt.net/Home/PasswordReset to do this, or you can also go there from AxCrypt with File | Options | Password Reset .
Unfortunately, if you do not know the password for an AxCrypt-encrypted file you cannot open it, even if you can sign in to the account. This is by design, it’s just this situation that AxCrypt is made for and it works like this even if you actually are the original owner of the file.
If you think you almost know the password, we have a simple software allowing you to try to find your password, and you can download the most recent version from https://account.axcrypt.net/Download/AxBruteForce.exe and read of how to use it at https://forum.axcrypt.net/axcrypt-brute-force/ . Please note that we cannot provide support beyond this.
Please check the FAQ at https://forum.axcrypt.net/support/faq/ for more information.
Remember: Do not forget your password, or you will lose your encrypted file and always keep a backup of all your important files, encrypted or not.
Hello,
If your goal is to keep an USB stick encrypted, the SanDisk software may well work fine. (Although such bundled softwares have often proven to be less secure than advertised). Here VeraCrypt can do the same job as well. And, depending on the user case, so can AxCrypt especially if you use the “Secured Folder” feature to easily keep the separate files in the folder encrypted, and if you wish to you can use the “Anonymous Rename” feature to hide the actual file names as well.
Try the various options and use what is the best fit for you!
Hello Eric,
No, you’re not doing anything wrong. Unfortunately, while we like anyone love free stuff, we can’t give away everything. We need revenue to develop and maintain AxCrypt. Therefore we decided that while we keep the basic Windows functionality free as always, new features and platforms such as mobile apps, do indeed require Premium. Sorry ;-)
Hello Joshua and Odessa James,
As mentioned, AxCrypt is indeed file encryption software, and thus encrypts files in a folder – not the folder as such.
VeraCrypt is not a folder encryption software either actually, it’s a volume encryption software – it creates entire encrypted volumes, i.e. ‘drive letters’ in Windows.
There are folder encryption solutions as well, but the problems with them is that the operating system does not have any convenient “hooks” to implement such – a folder is not really a container in a file system even if it looks like one in most cases, it’s actually just an index to files. Most file systems also allow many folders to reference the same actual file.
You can somewhat compare this to the old library system (if anyone around is old enough to remember) where you had the books on the shelves, and then index cards sorted in drawers. A folder would be the index cards for example for one author, and they contain references to what book shelves the actual books are found on.
Although the comparison is not exact, it illustrates the essential problem – in order to encrypt such a system, you have to both encrypt the folder index (which AxCrypt does not), and the separate files (which AxCrypt does). In the computer, the next problem is how to present such an encrypted folder to an operating system which has no intrinsic notion of this.
All is possible, to some extent, but it gets complicated which means expensive to build and maintain and often not as robust.
If you’re using Windows, I might suggest Encrypted File System, which essentially does all this – but it’s also very dangerous because there are many non-intuitive scenarios where the files are lost for ever (for example, windows password reset, re-installation of Windows, moving files to a new computer, etc), unless a complicated procedure called recovery certificate backup is performed, and then restored.
Hello Alfred,
Unfortunately, if you do not know the password for an AxCrypt-encrypted file you cannot open it, even if you can sign in to the account. This is by design, it’s just this situation that AxCrypt is made for and it works like this even if you actually are the original owner of the file.
Please check the FAQ at https://forum.axcrypt.net/support/faq/ for more information.
Hello Steven,
No version of AxCrypt stores any file data anywhere else than your local device. We never upload any of your file content to our servers. On our servers we store public and (encrypted) private keys, general account subscription status and if you’re using our password manager, we’ll store your encrypted passwords there – but only if you’re using it.
The restriction on mobile apps is that we can’t encrypt or update already encrypted content on your mobile device. The files must be encrypted on a desktop device, and imported in a manner of your chosing to the mobile device. On the mobile device, they will be (temporarily) decrypted in order to be viewed.
If you sign out of AxCrypt on your mobile or desktop device, you’re always required to re-enter your password.
Not exactly sure what you mean with ‘Alphabetized’, but you can click the header and sort the list of encrypted folders alphabetically.
Since it’s free to try all features, including the mobile apps, up to 30 days the best way to answer most questions is to try it out!
Hello James,
I’m glad it’s working as it should. And, yes, what you describe is how the clean broom icon should work. It should be red whenever there’s any plaintext files in the temporary directory. Clicking it should then clean whatever files it can clean, although it’s not sure it can clean all – in which case it’ll remain red.
Hello Elena,
It’s very easy. Just follow the instructions in found under the section “Key Sharing” here: https://forum.axcrypt.net/documentation/how-to-use/ .
November 16, 2017 at 08:12 in reply to: Windows does not reflect date of changes made to files encrypted w/ AxCrypt #8243Hello Jay!
No, you can’t get the FIM agent to “reach inside” the encrypted -xls.axx, since that would require it to have the password for the file, not to mention the code required to interpret the file contents – i.e. support AxCrypt specifically.
I think you’re viewing this from the wrong angle. Let the FIM agent monitor .axx files (in addition to .xls etc etc). From your and the FIM agents perspective, the .axx file is the file that should be monitored. That ‘is’ the file to all intents and purposes.
Also, I have really no idea what your FIM agent really does, but as far as file integrity is concerned, please know that AxCrypt using a cryptographically strong keyed checksum (HMAC-SHA-512) to ensure the integrity of the encrypted file. If it is modified in any way after encryption, AxCrypt will detect this.
November 15, 2017 at 22:05 in reply to: Windows does not reflect date of changes made to files encrypted w/ AxCrypt #8240Hello Anonymous,
AxCrypt will set the last modified and created time stamps to the current date & time on any encryption operation, and store the original files time stamps inside the encrypted .axx file as part of the meta data stored there along with the actual encrypted data. So the encrypted .axx file will have time stamps reflecting the time of the encryption, which of course includes an update.
When decrypting, the original unencrypted files time stamps will be restored.
If you are seeing any other behavior, please explain the exact sequence of events, preferrably with screen shots so we can understand just what it is you’re seeing as opposed to what you’re expecting.
Hello ANGRY COLLEGE STUDENT,
You write “AxCrypt DELETED all my files and then when I tried to restore them, my disk formatted. I was encrypting my data dvds.“.
I am sorry that you appear to have lost data, but from your description of the incident, this is not likely to be the fault of AxCrypt.
AxCrypt will of course delete the original files, but only after they have been successfully encrypted. That’s kind of the point of AxCrypt.
The clincher here however is your statement “when I tried to restore them, my disk formatted“. Now, I don’t know what you were attempting to do when you tried to restore them – but whatever it was, it has nothing to do with AxCrypt. Also, AxCrypt does not contain code that is capable of formatting a disk, so while AxCrypt may bugs causing it to misbehave it is to some extent limited in how badly it can misbehave. One way it’s limited, is that if it does not have code to format a disk, which it does not, such code cannot be executed under any reasonable circumstance even accidentally. AxCrypt did not format your disk.
Another thing that raises questions here is your statement “I was encrypting my data dvds.“. Once again, I can’t tell exactly what you were doing, but a DVD is typically a read-only medium – even if it is a DVD RW, it requires special software to be written. It is not transparent. So, to understand what was going on, this part of the process needs further explanation. Just where did AxCrypt come into the picture?
Thank you, Noel!
Hello unknown,
If you have Premium, files (or folders or files in folders if you have ‘Include Subfolders’ enabled) will be encryptable by a single click in a secured folder. We can’t encrypt them fully automatically, because too many softwares will be confused or broken by such an action.
-
AuthorPosts