Is there any way of extracting a password from an email account in Opera Mail?

[rh99]

rh99 @rh99 last edited by

I know there is a program that could possibly harvest the password (Opera Password Recovery) but it's $27 and I'm on a meager budget.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @rh99 last edited by

@rh99 That doesn't make sense, since the tool is exactly for those who forgot the password.

[rh99]

rh99 @leocg last edited by

@leocg
I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say "tool". Do you mean the Opera Password Recovery program? Or the process of resetting a password?

The email company requires an answer to a security question which I failed to make note of when I set it months or years ago. Without that I can't seem to do anything.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @rh99 last edited by

@rh99 I was talking about the email provider tool to recover the password asking for the old password.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

It's is very weird for a service to have a "forgot password" feature that requires you to have your old password to do the reset. Most password reset features for services just ask for your email address and send you a link that you can click on to reset your password. Once you click on that link and load it in your browser, you'll be asked to type the new password you want. The old password is not required. That's how it usually works anyway.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426

If you can still send messages in Opera Mail, you can log the outgoing connection while sending a test message.

Then, in the log file, the password will be exposed. If it's not in plain text, it'll be in base64 that you can decode.

decode.html:

<script>
    alert(atob("bXlwYXNzd29yZA=="));
</script>

You'd replace the base64 data there with what you get from the log file, save and open decode.html in your browser.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 To be clear, for an email service, that usually means to send the reset link to the recovery email that you have set (that's different for the one for the service). If you don't have that though, then you might have trouble resetting as the link will be send to the email you have with the service, where it most cases, you won't be able to access the message to click the link. But, in your case, you can still check messages for the service, so you should be able to get the message with the link in Opera to then be able to click on it or copy it. Your email service might be funky though.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @rh99 last edited by

@rh99 said in Is there any way of extracting a password from an email account in Opera Mail?:

Opera Password Recovery program

If you're talking about https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/opera_password_recovery.html, if I remember correctly, it wasn't able to recover mail passwords from wand.dat, only web page passwords.

[rh99]

rh99 @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426
Well this one asks for something I ain't got anymore so I'm out of luck. I don't have either the password or the answer to the security question. Next time I write everything down right away. No exceptions. I've had this account for years and didn't realize I was skating on thin ice.
If anyone has recommendations for an email provider that doesn't require 2FA let me know. (I'll delete this post right after finding one so it doesn't help criminals.)

[rh99]

rh99 @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426
Some people claim it does but the trial version doesn't seem to work at all. Some trial. Guess they know some people will just download it, sandbox it and use it in perpetuity.

[rh99]

rh99 @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426
They never asked for a recovery email address. I know that is common today. But it means you have to open email addresses in pairs which is a hassle.
The search is on for a new email address!

[rh99]

rh99 @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 said in Is there any way of extracting a password from an email account in Opera Mail?:

If you can still send messages in Opera Mail, you can log the outgoing connection while sending a test message.

Then, in the log file, the password will be exposed. If it's not in plain text, it'll be in base64 that you can decode.

decode.html:

<script>
    alert(atob("bXlwYXNzd29yZA=="));
</script>

You'd replace the base64 data there with what you get from the log file, save and open decode.html in your browser.

Interesting! Can I send a message to myself though? Remember I have no problem receiving and sending email on this account with Opera Mail.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @rh99 last edited by

@rh99 said in Is there any way of extracting a password from an email account in Opera Mail?:

an I send a message to myself though?

Yes, that should work.