The hashed is RMD160.
I don't know if there's a salt.
I all want is the password.
3a22cd10cc59fd0893b1d0cc07550bcfaf9b7fed

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Request for Question Clarification by philip_lynx-ga on 30 Mar 2004 14:56 PST

Dear Nicholas,

the way you have asked your question, chances are very slim for you to get an 
answer. The following things could help:

1) As archangel-ga suggested: What are the languages that the password
   could be in? Do you have any hint as to its length / characterset etc?
2) What application produced the hash? This is important to know how to
   apply any salt values or the like.

Even then, if the password is long enough and well choosen (and thus can not 
be guessed by a program withhin reasonable time) nobody will be able to give
you an answer withhin the next few years.

Sorry for the bad news,

    Philip

I'll bet it takes more than $200 in electricity and am curious what
the experts have to say on your question!

nicholas_mintenko-ga:

There is a very good reason why RIPEMD-160 is the encryption method of
choice today. Whereas a 128-bit encryption method such as MD4 or MD5
can now be easily cracked on a PC, cryptology experts still believe
that RIPEMD-160 will remain uneconomical to crack for at least the
next five to ten years.

Here is a well-maintained briefing on RIPEMD-160:

http://www.esat.kuleuven.ac.be/~bosselae/ripemd160.html

Currently, the only organizations with the computational resources to
attempt cracking a RIPEMD-160 encrypted key would be the US
government, and possible one or two other government-sponsored
organizations elsewhere in the world.

Best of luck with your quest,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

Wow!

But is this legal in the US?

If one were to actually manage to 'crack the code' in the US, and one
were NOT a government organization such as the CIA, then one had
better not publish one's findings, or apply one's knowledge on
anything other than one's own encrypted information, as anything else
would be a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's
provisions against reverse-engineering of copy-protection schemes (in
theory, at least).

Not going to be really do able unless you have some hints as to the
orginal password. Length, chacter set, stuff like.  And even then....

Try:

Rosebud

I'm afraid the only way you'll economically get this one done is to
brute-force it- it'd be faster than trying to crack it, I would
imagine.

Just on a whim, I've whipped up a little brute-forcer using a RMD160
library I found and C#. I'm pushing a few dictionary files through it
trying to see if we can produce the same hash, and if I get anything,
I'll let you know.

I think it's extremely unlikely that I'll get a match, but it's been a
fun way to spend 20 minutes. :)

Don't worry, cyclometh-ga, I tried...

It's possible that the password includes one or more numerals and
would therefore require a more sophisticated form of attack.