I have a hard drive with Ubuntu 14.04 installation - root partition was encrypted with LUKS. I had some configuration problems and wanted to re-install Ubuntu but keep all my data so I moved all my files to a separate folder (/OLD
) and tried to run the installer again with the option to NOT format the drive (use existing partition).
It asked me for my password but didn't format the drive. I can't access my data now. I can unlock the drive and it accepts my password (rejects other passwords) but after unlocking it it says unknown filesystem.
I suspect what happened is it created a new LUKS key with different salt and I'm able to unlock the partition but because the key is different the data is garbled.
Questions
- So my question is does this sound like a good explanation?
- Does anybody know a way to recreate my previous LUKS key from my known password (same password) but salt is different?
- Is it easier to brute force now that I know what the password is but I'm just missing the salt?
- Any apps or scripts to help me do this (LUKS key bruteforce from known password)?