With the increase in cybercrime activity, everything in an organization remains password-protected at all times. A password is considered to be a set of various letters, figures, and combinations that are used to access a large number of applications, files, systems, networks, or any other personal information. Passwords protect the valuable data and all the other indispensable resources from getting into the wrong hands.
What is meant by Password Cracking?
Password cracking is the process in which one can recover his/her password in case it is forgotten. In some cases, password cracking is also used to check the vulnerability and capacity of an application. In recent years, many specialists who have the CEH Certification Training, have come up with certain algorithms to crack the passwords of various applications. The applications which contain weaker passwords or combinations will be cracked in a short amount of time. On the other hand, the applications which are protected by strong combination, it will take hours, days, or even months to crack.
Most Popular Password Cracking Tools
The tools are created by professional programmers which are used to crack the passwords of various applications and files. These tools contain hundreds of combinations to crack the passwords and if they get successful in cracking it, it means that they are logged in to the servers. Below mentioned are the most popular password cracking tools, all of which are efficient enough to break any firewall.
- RainbowCrack
RainbowCrack is the kind of password cracking tool that uses a special kind of process known as the time-memory trade-off. In this type of process, all the passwords and combinations are written as plain text using a special algorithm. It can be time-consuming but once everything gets restored, RainbowCrack can crack any combination or password within minutes.
- Cain and Abel
Cain and Abel is a known password cracking tool which exhibits a lot of indispensable functions such as:
- Analyzing routing protocols
- Uncovering of those passwords that are cached
- The attacks instilled in the dictionary
- Brute force attacks
- Revealing password boxes
- Decoding scrambled passwords
Cain and Abel perform all of these functions by looking for a security defect rather than exploiting anything. However, this tool can only efficient enough to work with Windows ad it acts as a sniffer in any server, system, or network.
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- THC Hydra
THC Hydra is one of the most efficient password cracking tools because it supports a large number of network protocols such as:
- Cisco AAA
- Firebird
- HTTPS-FORM-POST
- HTTP-PROXY
- Asterisk
- Cisco Auth
- Oracle Listener
- PC-Anywhere
- rlogin
- Subversion
THC Hydra supports a lot more network protocols other than the above-mentioned ones which justify the fast working of this tool. THC Hydra can be easily installed and configured without waiting for any confirmation or approval. Moreover, this tool encapsulates miscellaneous modules that opt in the faster working of TCH Hydra to crack the passwords or several combinations.
- OphCrack
OphCrack works efficiently with Windows and it is based on rainbow-table which is utilized to track the vulnerability of the applications. Not only Windows but it can also work Mac systems and Linux for password cracking on every software or hardware present in the organization. It can crack various passwords, combinations, and hashes known as the NTLM and LM of an application. In case it gets difficult to understand, OphCrack also provides a Live CD consisting of ways for simple cracking of any password-protected application.
- Aircrack-NG
Aircrack-NG is used for cracking the passwords of the Wi-Fi which may include WPA or WEP passwords. It works efficiently and analyzes all those wireless packets that are encrypted and are transferred through Wi-Fi from one place to another. It uses various kinds of attacks such as the FMS attack to crack the passwords or combinations.
Aircrack-NG also comprises various algorithms to crack the passwords of the Wi-Fi and it is available on two most profound platforms known as Linux and Windows. A Live CD of Aircrack-NG is also available to teach you the working of this tool so you can utilize Aircrack-NG to the fullest.
- Brutus
Brutus is considered to the fastest and the most efficient password cracking tool which was released in the year 2000. Since then, it has taken a toll in the market with its profound execution and delivery in cracking the passwords. It is viable to support several authentication engines and it can simultaneously target about 60 applications, cracking their passwords all at once. You can pause it whenever you want and you can resume it whenever you feel the need to and it also supports:
- HTTP (HTML CGI/form)
- HTTP (Basic Authentication)
- NNTP
- IMAP
- POP3
- SMB
- Telnet
However, Brutus has not been updated since the past few years but even without updating it, it becomes the most useful tool for any organization.
Read more: The Ultimate Guide to Ethical Hacking
- Wfuzz
Wfuzz is the kind of password cracking tool that uses brute force to crack various combinations and passwords. It is also utilized to track all those resources that are hidden which may include servlets, scripts, and directories. It can thread a variety of applications at the same time, however; it can some time to approve requests. But still, Wfuzz comes at the top and it is the easiest to understand containing a lot of combinations in a dictionary.
- John the Ripper
John the Ripper is a well-known password cracking tool which can be used to detect all those applications that are protected by weaker passwords. It is an open-source platform that is available on Mac OS X, Windows, UNIX, and Linux. A better version of John the Ripper is also available in the market which exhibits newfound and advanced features. One can also download several other things that come with this password cracking tool such as Openwall Linux/GNU/*.
- Medusa
Medusa is the password cracking tool which consists of the same operations as that of THC Hydra and it supports:
- HTTP
- CVS
- IMAP
- MYSQL
- rlogin
- SMTP
- FTP
- pcAnywhere
- AFP
- PostgreSQL
- Telnet
However, the feature that makes Medusa unique is that it needs commands to operate or to perform a specific function. Therefore, before using this tool, it is highly recommended to learn about all the commands so that when you work with it, you get everything right. Medusa effectiveness can be accounted for by the fact that it can test about 2000 passwords in a single minute.
It can also be utilized to attack several accounts simultaneously, thus; in that case, you need to come up with a list that will mention the usernames of the accounts. Once this password cracking tool does its job, all the weak passwords can be mentioned alongside the username of that specific person.
- LOphtCrack
OphCrack has an alternative known as the LOphtCrack which is used to crack the passwords of the Windows using various hashes. It generates or guesses various passwords by means of brute-forcing along with a dictionary that can contain hundreds of combinations. It contains a special audit feature that can be adjusted manually to a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The use of LOphtCrack was inhibited in but when researched are made and people acknowledged the benefits of this tool, it was reignited in the years of 2009.
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