How to get forgotten MySQL password from MySQL Workbench on Windows 10?

Question

This question is essentially the same question as this one, but for Windows 10.

I have checked the documentation and still have no clear answer. A step by step for viewing the password would be perfect and truly appreciated!

Answer 1

First go check where your encrypted file is. Usually it is stored at %AppData%\MySQL\Workbench\workbench_user_data.dat

Now that you have the file location, open up powershell and copy & paste the following sequence of commands (order is important):

$cipher = Get-Content $env:APPDATA\MySQL\Workbench\workbench_user_data.dat -AsByteStream -Raw

Hit Enter

$scope = [System.Security.Cryptography.DataProtectionScope]::CurrentUser

Hit Enter

$mysqlpwd = [System.Security.Cryptography.ProtectedData]::Unprotect(
    $cipher, $null, $scope )

Hit Enter

[System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::UTF8.GetString($mysqlpwd)

Hit Enter

Now you can see the following output:

Mysql@X:Y@Z#DBUSER#DBPASSWORD
...
ssh@Z:22#SSHUSER#SSHPASSWORD
...

---

If you receive a TypeNotFound error:

Unable to find type [System.Security...].

you may also need to run the following to get access to "System.Security"

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Security

---

References:

• https://github.com/mysql/mysql-workbench/blob/5e10b42aa539155128bd97d54ed2cdd7ca283b34/library/forms/winforms/src/wf_utilities.cpp#L857
• https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-mysql-connections-vault.html

Answer 2

I made a quick Python solution adapted from the link in Mike's answer, since the PowerShell answer didn't work for me.

import os
import re
import win32crypt  # Requires pywin32 package

_group = '(?P<{}>{}+)'
WORKBENCH_PATTERN = '{dbm}@{host}:{port}\2{user}\3{password}'.format(
    dbm=_group.format('dbm', r'\w'),
    host=_group.format('host', r'[\w\.-]'),
    port=_group.format('port', r'\d'),
    user=_group.format('user', r'[\w\.-]'),
    password=_group.format('password', '.'),
)

def read_workbench_user_data(file_path=None):
    if file_path is None:
        file_path = os.path.join(os.getenv('APPDATA'), 'MySQL/Workbench/workbench_user_data.dat')

    with open(file_path, 'rb') as file:
        encrypted_data = file.read()
    decrypted_data = win32crypt.CryptUnprotectData(encrypted_data, None, None, None, 0)
    decrypted_content = decrypted_data[1].decode('utf-8')
    return decrypted_content.split('\n')[:-1]

if __name__ == '__main__':
    for item in read_workbench_user_data():
        match = re.match(WORKBENCH_PATTERN, item)

        print(f'{match.group("dbm")}:')
        print(f'\tHost: {match.group("host")}:{match.group("port")}')
        print(f'\tUsername: {match.group("user")}')
        print(f'\tPassword: {match.group("password")}')

Here's how the output looks: