Renoit - Need help with password hint for friend who passed away

[kansasskydiver 0]

Does the word "renoit" mean anything to you?

A friend of mine passed away in a car accident last Thursday. I'm helping the family with his affairs and was able to use a LINUX disk to remove his computer password however he has an external drive that is password protected and encrypted. Western Digital said all we can do is reformat the drive, which isn't an option...

Can people possibly post what they think the word might mean? Thank you, more heads thinking the better

<--- See look, pink dolphins DO exist!

[Remster 30]

Can you use a linux box to hook into that drive and bypassed the security, or it it fully encrypted?

Also, maybe he didnt want others to see what is on that drive... keep that in mind.

Nice thing you are doing for his family tho...

edit: sure its not "Renoir" as in the painter? Maybe one of his main painting's name....

Remster

[kansasskydiver 0]

Remster - the drive is 256bit encrypted, already tried to slave it and access, doesn't show anything... There is an option to disable the virtual disk by doing a firmware update, however of course I need the password to update the firmware. I'm doing this more for his sister whom is a very close friend of mine as well. He was only 24 and we know he kept all his pictures on the external drive which the family would like to have By no means would I be hacking a computer and the drive by any other means, that's why the sister and I are looking at the drive first before the parents, lol we already cleaned the porn off his computer haha!

edit to add: yes it is "renoit" it was also his password hint on his computer however with the linux disk I use it just erases the password so we never saw what it was on his pc. We don't have access to any of his other accounts, email, facebook, myspace etc so we're hoping that by figuring out what "renoit" might mean they can access the rest of this stuff.

[quade 4]

It's an anagram of "orient" if that's any help.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[kansasskydiver 0]

We tried that too, used a scrabble program to find all the words it could possibly be

[LongWayToFall 0]

The only advice I can offer, is to think back to when he might have first created an email account, at 10-15 years old or something. What sorts of activities was he involved in? This might give you some idea of how to apply this "renoit" thing.

[shropshire 0]

Have you 'googled' Renoit ? Do any of the results 'hint' at people he may have known Friends/bands/writters etc....?

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[kansasskydiver 0]

The only thing we could connect off of google was Deviantart. We are contacting the college today to see if they will release his email password, hoping it will be the same and also giving us access to then reset his other passwords. Still working on it, had some interesting suggestions, thank you all

[MNichie 0]

Going in a different direction...do you know what software was used to do the encrytions(bitlocker, storageCrypt, etc), or better yet what type of encryption was used. Either way it is possible to access the data if you put enough time into it.

[Remster 30]

Did he do renovation work? Could be "Reno it"... A project he did or something....

Remster

[skyrider 0]

Only thing I come up with is Artist, which a I seriously doubt is it!

[regulator 0]

Have you tried using ERD Commander? I think it works for Linux drives as well, but I could be mistaken.

[Tokter 0]

Since you have access to his computer, do you have access to his email accounts? If so you could maybe use the password recovery of websites he had an account for to send the password to his email....just a thought.

[Hjeada 0]

Is it possible that it is intended to be that renoit = Re: noit? Not sure what noit might be, but it might be worth a try...

Dudeist Skydiver #0511

[happythoughts 0]

Did they work in Reno, KS at an IT shop?

We always "hide in plain sight" on a whiteboard.

"leaving before 3." lb43

Passwords - generally - kids, pets, names, birthdays
(A special character makes it obnoxious)

[Racenic 0]

What if you spell RENOIT back wards you get TIONER one word that comes to mind is Executioner...
Or maybe it's another word that ends in TIONER

Just a thought!

Good Luck

Nick D

The key to Immortality is- first living a life worth remembering”

[StangMan90 0]

Is he from South Dakota? If so, think.

simplify

[yoink 321]

simple substitution cypher gives:

BOXYSD
HUDEYJ

No idea if those may be names that mean something to you.

[airtwardo 7]

I'd try to figure out who R.E. is ...because they 'know' it!


or maybe Reno It...and 911 is the key?

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[LouDiamond 1]

Possible meanings:

"Re know it" as in learn it again

" RE: know it" as in a reference to knowing it

" RENO it" as in the town of

"Reno I.T." as in a I.T. company in Reno, Nv


It could also be a reference to a DJ or a book store in a video game called oblivion which is owned by Estelle renoit. It could also be reference to Nikki renoit or Herns renoit.

It could also be an acronym for a longer phrase or poem with the first letters forming the word renoit. Does he have any sayings or phrases in or around his computer/in his house that could be comprised of those letters?

Recognizing that the sun is setting for me

Even though I have just seen the light

No where are you to be found

Out on the ocean, I am adrift

I continue to swim in hopes of finding you

Time is not on my side.



Was the letter r capitalized in the hint or did you just make it a capital?

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[Sapphire 0]

So, I have nothing else to do and a quick search revealed it could be a street name, a writer, a football (?) player, a type of grape in the Sims - though I never played this is what the search came up as LOL! Not sure if any of this may help...

Sorry for the loss of your friend!

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar" ~ Helen Keller

[sebcat 0]

Quote

A friend of mine passed away in a car accident last Thursday. I'm helping the family with his affairs and was able to use a LINUX disk to remove his computer password however he has an external drive that is password protected and encrypted. Western Digital said all we can do is reformat the drive, which isn't an option...

Too bad you reset the computer password. That could've provided you with a clue of what kind of passwords he used. You could've extracted the password hash(es) and tried to brute force it/them. You should only work on copies, never on the original itself.

The external drive, do you know what kind of program he used for the encryption? TrueCrypt? How big is the drive?

256 bit encryption doesn't really mean much. The entropy of the password/-phrase is often a lot less.

If the password is a permutation of "renoit", you've got 6! = 720 possible passwords, if it's some kind of substitution going on it depends on the alphabet. If the encryption software requires a phrase, it's probably an acronym, as mentioned earlier. However, if he used the same thing as an OS password it's probably not. If the password is 6 characters, it shouldn't take too much power to break it (knock on wood).

But you have access to the OS drive, and that's great. What operating system is installed?