{ "id": "3c8ee571-36b8-4aea-833c-a82d1871a3e3", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:08:16.022366Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:11:27.110865Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "1034b66912f540ba325cd96a826e32ad25dc23d5", "title": "Windows Vault analyzer and decoder", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 225770, "plain_text": "Windows Vault analyzer and decoder\r\nArchived: 2026-04-05 20:22:37 UTC\r\nWindows Password Recovery - Vault Explorer and Decoder\r\n \r\nWhat is Windows Vault\r\nWindows Vault is a protected storage for user or system secrets, passwords, network keys, web password and\r\nother personal information. Data stored in Windows Vault is structured and represents a set of records belonging to\r\na certain Vault schema (see pic. below).\r\nOn the physical level, Vault is a disk-based folder with a set of the following files:\r\nPolicy.vpol - set of encryption keys for Vault records (credentials). These keys can be protected using two\r\nbasic methods: either using DPAPI or using a specific user password. The latter protection method is not\r\nused in Windows 8 and currently is not supported by the software.\r\n.vsch - Vault schema that contains data description, flags and other system information.\r\n.vcrd - Vault credential that stores the original encrypted data associated with a certain schema. The data\r\nnormally consist of several fields. The description of the fields is stored in .vsch.\r\n \r\nWindows Vault Explorer\r\nWindows Vault Explorer is a utility for offline analyzing and decrypting Vault credentials. The decryption Wizard\r\nsplits the entire process into the following steps:\r\nhttps://www.passcape.com/windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer\r\nPage 1 of 7\n\n1. Looking for Vault folder\r\n2. Looking for user's or system's Master Key\r\n3. Setting registry files and other information necessary for decrypting the Master Key\r\n4. Selecting Vault Schema\r\n5. Looking for Vault records belonging to the selected schema\r\n6. Decrypting selected Vault credential\r\nLooking for Vault folder\r\nThere are currently two types of Vault storage: system and user. The user Vault storage can be located in the\r\nfollowing folders:\r\n%USER_APPDATA%\\Microsoft\\Vault\\\r\n%USER_LOCAL_APPDATA%\\Microsoft\\Vault\\\r\nFor example,\r\nС:\\Users\\John\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Vault\\18289F5D-9783-43EC-A50D-52DA022B046E\r\nС:\\Users\\Helen\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Vault\\4BF4C442-9B8A-41A0-B380-DD4A704DDB28\r\nhttps://www.passcape.com/windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer\r\nPage 2 of 7\n\nThe default location of the system Vault storage is:\r\n%SYSTEM_APPDATA%\\Microsoft\\Vault\\\r\n%SYSTEM_LOCAL_APPDATA%\\Microsoft\\Vault\\\r\n%PROGRAMDATA%\\Microsoft\\Vault\\\r\nFor example,\r\nС:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Vault\\4BF4C442-9B8A-41A0-B380-\r\nDD4A704DDB28\r\nС:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Vault\\4BF4C442-9B8A-41A0-B380-\r\nDD4A704DDB28\r\nC:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Vault\\AC658CB4-9126-49BD-B877-31EEDAB3F204\r\nNote that some of the specified folders have the system attribute set on, which makes these folders hidden.\r\nWindows has VaultCmd.exe utility for creating and managing your own Vault storages.\r\nSelecting Master Key\r\nhttps://www.passcape.com/windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer\r\nPage 3 of 7\n\nOnce a certain Vault folder is selected, you need to specify the path to the Master Key used in the protection of the\r\nVault encryption keys. The user's Master Key always resides in the folder\r\n%APPDATA%\\Microsoft\\Protect\\%SID%, and the system account's Master Keys are stored in\r\n%SYSTEMDIR%\\Microsoft\\Protect. It's worth mentioning that a typical user account contains several Master\r\nKeys, while a specific object could be decrypted using only one of them, the name of which is stored in the\r\nPolicy.vpol file. When searching for the Master Key, the program can filter out unnecessary names.\r\nDecrypting Master Key\r\nTo decrypt a user's Master Key, you need to provide at least two parameters: the user's logon password and his\r\nsecurity identifier (SID), which is normally included in the path to the Master Key. The program finds the user's\r\nSID automatically. If that hasn't been done for whatsoever reason, set it up manually. To decrypt the system's\r\nMaster Key, we don't need to specify the password; the program will extract all the necessary information from\r\nthe two registry files: SYSTEM and SECURITY.\r\nIn some cases, the decryption of the Master Key requires specifying the path to the SAM registry file. That's the\r\ncase only when the account of the data owner in Windows 8 has the LiveID type.\r\nhttps://www.passcape.com/windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer\r\nPage 4 of 7\n\nWindows Password Recovery starting with version 9.7 uses some vulnerabilities in DPAPI Master Key\r\nencryption. Thus, to decrypt ANY Vault entry of a domain user, the owner logon password is not needed any\r\nlonger.\r\nWPR v15 supports additional decryption methods using Windows Hello PIN or biometrics (password-less\r\nrecovery).\r\n \r\nSelecting Vault Schema\r\nOn the fourth step, if the previous ones passed successfully, the program prompts you to select one of the schemas\r\nbelonging to our Vault from the dropdown list. Just below the list, we can see the general characteristics of the\r\nselected schema: its name, version, GUID, flags, number of attributes and credentials.\r\nSelecting Vault credentials\r\nhttps://www.passcape.com/windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer\r\nPage 5 of 7\n\nIn a similar manner, select one of the credentials of interest that belongs to the schema we have selected during the\r\nprevious step.\r\nDecrypting Vault credentials\r\nhttps://www.passcape.com/windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer\r\nPage 6 of 7\n\nAnd, at last, the final step, where you can view the decrypted record, copy it to clipboard or save to file for further\r\nanalysis. The figure shows decrypted plain-text password (it is clobbered) of the administrator account configured\r\nto logon using biometric information (fingerprint).\r\nSource: https://www.passcape.com/windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer\r\nhttps://www.passcape.com/windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer\r\nPage 7 of 7", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "MITRE" ], "origins": [ "web" ], "references": [ "https://www.passcape.com/windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer" ], "report_names": [ "windows_password_recovery_vault_explorer" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775434096, "ts_updated_at": 1775826687, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/1034b66912f540ba325cd96a826e32ad25dc23d5.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/1034b66912f540ba325cd96a826e32ad25dc23d5.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/1034b66912f540ba325cd96a826e32ad25dc23d5.jpg" } }