If you are reading this article you are probably aware that Microsoft Outlook can password protect it’s .PST file or Personal Folders – the file that holds all of your email. In practice, without the password you are not able to open Outlook and read email from the protected PST file. Furthermore, the password is actually embedded into the PST file and is transferable to other Outlook installations. You cannot take a password protected PST file and move it to another computer and expect to open it successfully without the password. That would be a pretty silly level of protection no?
Rest assured, Microsoft has another definition of silly but is not any more comforting to most of us. The PST file is protected by such a weak encryption scheme that it remains only a few clicks above trivial to crack – even in the current version Outlook 2007. While the password may keep your significant other from prying it does little to thwart anyone even loosely determined to sneak a peak.
PstPassword is a free utility that assists the user in “recovering” a forgotten password. PstPassword is so slick that it works on all versions of Outlook – even if they aren’t installed! The program is simple enough to use; just pass it a PST file or let it scan the system for any files itself. PstPassword will present a password that will open the provided PST.
Notice above I said a password and not the password? Also notice in the screenshot above that there are three columns with passwords displayed? Microsoft’s encryption is so weak that there are multiple passwords that can open a single encrypted PST file. The passwords it returns will work and they may not even include the password you had provided upon creation!
Feel safe!
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