Password cracking is a mechanism that is used in most of the parts of hacking. Exploitation uses it to exploit the applications by cracking their administrator or other account passwords, Information Gathering uses it when we have to get the social media or other accounts of the C.E.O. or other employees of the target organization, Wifi Hacking uses it when we have to crack the hash from the captured wifi password hash file, etc.
So to be a good Ethical hacker one must be aware of password cracking techniques. Though it is easy to crack passwords by just using guessing techniques, it is very time consuming and less efficient so in order to automate the task, we have a lot of tools. When it comes to tools Kali Linux is the Operating System that stands first, So here we have a list of tools in Kali Linux that may be used for Password Cracking.
1. Crunch
In order to hack a password, we have to try a lot of passwords to get the right one. When an attacker uses thousands or millions of words or character combinations to crack a password there is no surety that any one of those millions of combinations will work or not. This collection of a different combination of characters is called a wordlist. And in order to crack a password or a hash, we need to have a good wordlist which could break the password. So to do so we have a tool in Kali Linux called crunch.
crunch is a wordlist generating tool that comes pre-installed with Kali Linux. It is used to generate custom keywords based on wordlists. It generates a wordlist with permutation and combination. We could use some specific patterns and symbols to generate a wordlist.
To use crunch, enter the following command in the terminal.
crunch
2. RainbowCrack
Rainbow crack is a tool that uses the time-memory trade-off technique in order to crack hashes of passwords. It uses rainbow tables in order to crack hashes of passwords. It doesn’t use the traditional brute force method for cracking passwords. It generates all the possible plaintexts and computes the hashes respectively. After that, it matches hash with the hashes of all the words in a wordlist. And when it finds the matching hashes, it results in the cracked password.
To use RainbowCrack, enter the following command in the terminal.
rcrack
3. Burp Suite
Burp Suite is one of the most popular web application security testing software. It is used as a proxy, so all the requests from the browser with the proxy pass through it. And as the request passes through the burp suite, it allows us to make changes to those requests as per our need which is good for testing vulnerabilities like XSS or SQLi or even any vulnerability related to the web. Kali Linux comes with burp suite community edition which is free but there is a paid edition of this tool known as burp suite professional which has a lot many functions as compared to burp suite community edition. It comes with an intruder tool that automates the process of password cracking through wordlists.
To use burp suite:
- Read this to learn how to setup burp suite.
- Open terminal and type “burpsuite” there.
- Go to the Proxy tab and turn the interceptor switch to on.
- Now visit any URL and it could be seen that the request is captured.
4. Maltego
Maltego is a platform developed to convey and put forward a clear picture of the environment that an organization owns and operates. Maltego offers a unique perspective to both network and resource-based entities which is the aggregation of information delivered all over the internet – whether it’s the current configuration of a router poised on the edge of our network or any other information, Maltego can locate, aggregate and visualize this information. It offers the user with unprecedented information which is leverage and power.
Maltego’s Uses:
- It is used to exhibit the complexity and severity of single points of failure as well as trust relationships that exist currently within the scope of the infrastructure.
- It is used in the collection of information on all security-related work. It will save time and will allow us to work more accurately and in a smarter way.
- It aids us in thinking process by visually demonstrating interconnected links between searched items.
- It provides a much more powerful search, giving smarter results.
- It helps to discover “hidden” information.
To use Maltego: Go to applications menu and then select “maltego” tool to execute it.
5. John the Ripper
John the Ripper is a great tool for cracking passwords using some famous brute for attacks like dictionary attack or custom wordlist attack etc. It is even used to crack the hashes or passwords for the zipped or compressed files and even locked files as well. It has many available options to crack hashes or passwords.
To use John the Ripper
- John the ripper comes pre-installed in Kali Linux.
- Just type “john” in the terminal to use the tool.