When connecting to a new project via FTP I will occasionally come across .STE (Dreamweaver Site File) files being used as a means to store FTP username and password information. The FTP password is always encrypted in these files. This causes problems because I do not use Dreamweaver to build websites. Even worse, what if I were someone else that did not own a copy of Dreamweaver?

If you come across a legacy site that uses an .STE file to provide FTP information it can be difficult to get that information into another program.

Process

Here is the process I went through to extract the password from a .STE file:

1. Open the .STE with a plain text editor. You will see an XML document.
2. You will see that the &ls;remoteinfo> tag has many attributes. Find the pw=”" attribute and copy it’s contents to the clipboard.
3. Go to http://www.moredw.com/getPW.php and click on the “Get FTP Password online” towards the bottom of the page. This will launch a popup window.
4. Use the WebApp here to de-crypt the password.

That’s it, you’ve de-crypted the FTP password, your free now.

Resources

• File Extension .STE Details
• Dreamweaver 8 Help Files
• De-crypting a Dreamweaver .STE Password