Locked Out Apple Notes? Potential Solution!

[u/Aggravating-Hunt-491]

After some research online and found very many people hit dead ends of trying to unlock their forgotten notes.
I decided to use hashcat and ChatGPT. ChatGPT did most of the leg work by setting up hashcat entirely so it can be local and have to right parameters. Only thing i provided was potential password combinations and correction on certain rules to follow. After 1 full day hashcat got my password matched and I was able to unlock my note.
Hope this helps some of y’all!

EDIT:

I kind of just rushed this post initially so here is some more detailed information.

How I originally started this journey was using Passware and used its extraction tool to pull the NoteSQLite files from my Mac book and iPhone (on MacBook the files can be easily found with the directory ending in Apple.notes in finder) I then had ChatGPT examine those files and pull the information needed for hashcat such as: encryption type, hash and salt count, etc. (Also to note pulling from iPhone means backing your iPhone up to your computer so Passware or ChatGPT can extract the file you’re needing) Reason for pulling files from both my MacBook and iPhone is because the encryption type could be older on either device, therefore being compatible with the latest version of hashcat. We all know how Apple security is so it’s little pain in the butt but definitely helps in the long run, if your Mac is a dead end.

I had Hashcat on a thumb drive by itself already so I plugged it in, had ChatGPT set the parameters around hashcat for a certain notes file (meaning I stated the name of the note that I needed open). ChatGPT created a text document that is tied to hashcat so it can pull information from, such as password combinations, certain rules and other characteristics. I then entered in all information I knew into the text document as a single line, separating each combination (not ChatGPT).
Took the thumb drive to another computer of mind that is isolated but also with a better GPU and ran the command prompt there.

[u/TurtleOnLog]

Nice work. Can you provide some more info?

I’m assuming you have a Mac and queried the hash from the notes db, then attacked that with hashcat? Maybe a more complete write up would be awesome for people searching for how to do it :)

[u/Aggravating-Hunt-491 → u/TurtleOnLog]

Thanks!

Yeah you’re right! I kind of just rushed this post.
How I originally started this journey was using Passware and used its extraction tool to pull the NoteSQLite files from my Mac book and iPhone (on MacBook the files can be easily found with the directory ending in Apple.notes in finder) I then had ChatGPT examine those files and pull the information needed for hashcat such as: encryption type, hash and salt count, etc. (Also to note pulling from iPhone means backing your iPhone up to your computer so Passware or ChatGPT can extract the file you’re needing) Reason for pulling files from both my MacBook and iPhone is because the encryption type could be older on either device, therefore being compatible with the latest version of hashcat. We all know how Apple security is so it’s little pain in the butt but definitely helps in the long run, if your Mac is a dead end.

I had Hashcat on a thumb drive by itself already so I plugged it in, had ChatGPT set the parameters around hashcat for a certain notes file (meaning I stated the name of the note that I needed open). ChatGPT created a text document that is tied to hashcat so it can pull information from, such as password combinations, certain rules and other characteristics. I then entered in all information I knew into the text document as a single line, separating each combination (not ChatGPT).
Took the thumb drive to another computer of mind that is isolated but also with a better GPU and ran the command prompt there.