A MetaMask vault recovered after a lost password
No seed phrase, a forgotten password, and a MetaMask that wouldn’t unlock — but the encrypted vault was still sitting in the browser.
At a glance — Wallet: MetaMask (browser extension) · Problem: forgotten password, no seed · Method: vault extract + hashcat -m 26600 · Outcome: seed recovered · Fee: success-based
The situation
The client had used MetaMask daily, never wrote down the seed phrase, and then forgot the password. Crucially, they had NOT reinstalled the extension — so the encrypted vault, which holds the keys, was still present in the browser profile.
The challenge
MetaMask stores an encrypted vault ({data, iv, salt}) protected by the password via PBKDF2 and AES-GCM. With no seed, the only path was to find the password that decrypts that vault — which first meant safely extracting the vault from the browser’s local storage.
How we recovered it
We located the vault in the extension’s LevelDB data, extracted it, and ran a hint-driven search against it with hashcat’s MetaMask mode (26600), building candidates from what the client remembered. A candidate decrypted the vault cleanly, yielding the seed phrase — and with it, full access.
The outcome
The client restored the recovered seed into a fresh wallet and secured a written backup this time. Success-based fee, nothing upfront.
Have a similar case?
Forgot your MetaMask password but never uninstalled it? The vault may still be recoverable. Related: MetaMask password recovery · All supported wallets
Locked out of MetaMask?
Tell us what you have and what you remember. Honest assessment within 24 hours, and you pay only if we recover your funds.