Generate permutation of 12 Characters in Excel

[2ray]

I have no clue about permutation jargon so in the simplest possible lay man terms can someone talk me through how to generate all the possible permutations/sequence for the following twelve characters.
2Q3QS7ULVJY1
Many Thanks
2ray.

 

[wigi]

I have no clue about permutation jargon

You're aware that this means half a billion of combinations?
What are you going to be using them for?

 

[2ray]

Ouch! That is alot. Basically this is an incredibly important passcode for a results database I need to access but unfortunately I can neither reset the code or ask for it from the originator. They made it clear that once the code is lost there is no way of them being able to let me know what it was. But thankfully I have not lost the code but may have just written it in the wrong sequence *bit of a dyslexic moment when i was writing it down i think*

I originally asked for all permutations because I wanted to be sure I covered all possible sequences but since it is so huge, can it be narrowed down such that the resulting sequence is
N L N L L L L N L L L N where N is a number and L is a letter from the original characters i.e. 2Q3QS7ULVJY1.

Will this result in fewer numbers or have I just complicated things. Because if you look at the original characters I gave you, it is not quite in this order I think it should be.

Can you still help with how I go about this in Excel? Would appreciate it.
Thanks

 

[xenou]

I believe that is still nearly 1 million possibilities - still far too many (=PERMUT(4,4)*PERMUT(8,8) for the 4 numbers and 8 letters respectively). It's against forum rules to assist in password recovery so please be aware that it's not possible assist in a routine to attempt a brute force attack from the possible passwords.

ξ

 

[2ray]

Thank you Xenou. I do realise it might be a far fetched attempt at making sure i exhaust all my option. but just to clarify that this is by nothing to do with "attempt a brute force attack from the possible passwords" as you put it. The nature of my entry on the programme in question was such that because of the sheer volume of people who applied for it and got their confirmation numbers/passcodes/whatever else it can be called, the organisation made it clear they would not be able to answer requests to recover forgotten or lost confirmation numbers. I dont think it means they can't but i just think its their way of limiting numbers even further without too much cost to them/involvement on their part. so this is all legit stuff (but to be fair you can only take my word for it i guess). So anyway this is why I cant get clarification on whether I wrote down the correct sequence of my confirmation number/passcode etc.
So the formula you gave is all i need?
thanks.

 

[xenou]

The formula in my post tells you the number of possible sequences (if I have used it correctly), but it won't *generate* them. Since you couldn't possibly try them out one by one yourself, you'd be reduced in essence to a brute force algorithm - or at least, I suspect that's where we'd end up, which isn't allowed in this forum. I'm sure your case is legitimate but I'm sorry to say that's irrelevant, as the rules make no such distinctions.

What "program" are you using? As a general rule, I think that most software companies do *not* in fact keep track of customers passwords for them ...

 

[2ray]

Goes to show how little I know when it comes to this. Dont have a clue what you mean by brute force algorithm (?)

All i have got is Excel. Did I mention that I had no clue of doing any kind of permutation in Excel? Basically a newbie to generating permutations.

I understand there is only so much you can help me with within the confines of your rule so whatever you can give me, I will happily take. If you cant help at all too then that is not a problem, quite understandable.

Thanks again.

 

[xenou]

A brute force algorithm would be any means of trying all the possible passwords - typically in a programmatic way rather than typing them in one by one. With 1,000,000 such passwords to try I think you'd have to do that programmatically ... so, yes, I'm afraid no help here ... (not in this case).

ξ

 

[Scott Huish]

According to your post, you asked the people who set up the database what the password was. Did you ask them if they could RESET the password?