Welcome back, my aspiring cyberwarriors!
People often ask, how do I crack passwords? The answer is that there are many ways and it is important that you think strategically to prevent many hours and days fruitlessly. For instance, trying to brute force a hash of long and complex password is a fool's errand and will consume almost unlimited amounts of your time and resources. The key is to think and act strategically when attempting to crack passwords.
Here are some the primary strategies for password cracking:
Brute Force Attacks
This method involves systematically trying all possible combinations of characters until the correct password is found.
It is effective for short or simple passwords but can be time-consuming for longer, complex ones. Not recommended unless all other efforts fail.
Dictionary Attacks
Use a pre-compiled list of common words, phrases, or passwords to guess the correct one. This is an approach most of your password hacking tool use and the selection of a wordlist is critical.
This approach is faster than brute force but limited.
Rainbow Table Attacks
A rainbow table contains pre-computed hash values and their corresponding plaintext passwords.
Use these tables to reverse-engineer hashed passwords. This only works if the passwords have not been salted. With Wi-Fi passwords the salt is the SSID name.
Credential Stuffing
This technique exploits credentials leaked in data breaches.
You can use automated tools to test stolen username-password pairs across multiple platforms, taking advantage of the fact that people re-use passwords.
You can find billions of passwords in the data dumps on the dark web.
Password Spraying
Instead of targeting one account with many guesses, you can attempt a few commonly used passwords (e.g., "123456") across multiple accounts. Usually, you will want to use the most common passwords and try them on the all the accounts. It is like that ONE person is using a common password and you only need to find one password!
This method avoids detection mechanisms like account lockouts.
Phishing
This technique uses social engineering to trick users into revealing their passwords by creating fake websites or sending deceptive emails that mimic legitimate services.
This method relies on social engineering rather than computational tools
Malware
Tools like keyloggers or screen scrapers capture user inputs or screenshots to steal passwords directly from devices.
Malware can be delivered through malicious downloads or attachments.
Guessing
If attackers have personal information about the target (e.g., birthdays, hobbies), they may guess weak or predictable passwords manually or with simple automation. This relies upon open-source intelligence to gather information on the target such as social media.
Password Cracking Tools
Here are some of the most common password cracking tools:
Hashcat
One of the most popular and versatile password crackers, Hashcat supports over 300 different types of hashes and is available on multiple operating systems.
It allows for parallelized cracking, optimizing performance with temperature monitoring and distributed hash-cracking capabilities.
John the Ripper
John the Ripper is a well-established open-source tool primarily for Linux and Mac OS, with a version available for Windows. It is very simple to use.
It supports various password types, including those used in web applications and document files, making it highly flexible for different environments
THC Hydra
A powerful online password-cracking tool that works across various platforms (Windows, Linux, etc.). It is widely used for remote password cracking sometimes in conjunction with BurpSuite
Hydra supports numerous network protocols and is extensible, allowing users to add new modules easily.
Medusa
Similar to THC Hydra, Medusa is a command-line tool known for its speed in executing parallel login brute-forcing attacks.
It supports a wide range of protocols and can test thousands of passwords per minute.
RainbowCrack
This tool uses precomputed rainbow tables to crack passwords efficiently.
RainbowCrack allows users to generate custom rainbow tables or utilize existing ones, making the cracking process faster through table lookups. This only works with non-salted passwords. In some cases, such a Wi-Fi, the salt is known and you can then utilize this technique.
Ophcrack
A popular rainbow table-based password cracker for Windows that can also run on Linux and Mac.
Ophcrack is known for its ease of use and effectiveness in cracking LM and NTLM hashes on old Windows systems.
Summary
It's important to keep in mind that password cracking is as much an art as it is science. That's is why it is critical important to understand how password hashes work and then develop an appropriate strategy. If you have unlimited resources such as a state-intelligence agency or a large botnet, brute force cracking can be useful but for the rest, it is key to develop an effective strategy and tool.
As a rule in life, keep it simple. Using the simplest strategy works best. If not, progress to the next most complex and so on.