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Three Password Cracking Techniques and How to Defend Against Them

Three Password Cracking Techniques and How to Defend Against Them

Feb 26, 2025 Identity Protection / Password Security
Passwords are rarely appreciated until a security breach occurs; suffice to say, the importance of a strong password becomes clear only when faced with the consequences of a weak one. However, most end users are unaware of just how vulnerable their passwords are to the most common password-cracking methods. The following are the three common techniques for cracking passwords and how to defend against them. Brute force attack Brute force attacks are straightforward yet highly effective techniques for cracking passwords. These attacks involve malicious actors using automated tools to systematically try every possible password combination through repeated login attempts. While such tools have existed for years, the advent of affordable computing power and storage has made them even more efficient today, especially when weak passwords are used. How it works When it comes to brute force attacks, malicious actors employ a range of tactics—from simple brute force attacks that test ev...
Hash Code Cracker V 1.2 Released ~ Password Cracking from BreakTheSecurity

Hash Code Cracker V 1.2 Released ~ Password Cracking from BreakTheSecurity

Oct 04, 2011
Hash Code Cracker V 1.2 Released ~ Password Cracking from BreakTheSecurity BreakTheSecurity is proud to release the Hash Code Cracker Version 1.2. Our latest release supports Online Cracking function. Description: This password cracker is developed for PenTesters and Ethical hackers. Please Use this software for legal purposes(Testing the Password Strength). Features: This software will crack the MD5, SHA1,NTLM(Windows Password) hash codes. No need to install. Supports All platforms(windows XP/7,Linux,..). V1.2 Changelog : Included Online cracking Support Minimum Requirements: Java Runtime Environment: JRE 1.6 should be installed.(you can get it from oracle.com) How to Run the Application? Download the .zip file and extract. Extract the zip file. Open the Terminal or command prompt. Navigate to the path of Extracted zip file (i mean HashCodeCracker Folder) in Terminal/CMD. Type this command "java -jar HashCodeCracker.jar". Now the applica...
Cryptography Hacks - Hash Encryption using DuckDuckGo Search Engine

Cryptography Hacks - Hash Encryption using DuckDuckGo Search Engine

Jan 30, 2014
Over the past several months, it has become clear that the Internet and our Privacy have been fundamentally compromised. A Private search engine DuckDuckGo claims that when you click on one of their search results, they do not send personally identifiable information along with your request to the third party. Like Google dorks (advance search patterns), there are thousands of similar, but technically more useful search hacks are also available in DuckDuckGo called DuckDuckGoodies . Today I am going to share about Handy " Cryptography " using DuckDuckGo search engine . Whether you are a Hacker, Cracker or a Researcher, you need to face a number of hash strings in your day to day life. Hashing is a one way encryption of a plain text or a file, generally used to secure passwords or to check the integrity of the file. There is a certain set of hashing algorithms, e.g.md5, sha1, sha-512 etc. A hash function generates the exact output if executed n numbe...
cyber security

Secured Images 101

websiteWizDevOps / AppSec
Secure your container ecosystem with this easy-to-read digital poster that breaks down everything you need to know about container image security. Perfect for engineering, platform, DevOps, AppSec, and cloud security teams.
cyber security

When Zoom Phishes You: Unmasking a Novel TOAD Attack Hidden in Legitimate Infrastructure

websiteProphet SecurityArtificial Intelligence / SOC
Prophet AI uncovers a Telephone-Oriented Attack Delivery (TOAD) campaign weaponizing Zoom's own authentication infrastructure.
Android Network Toolkit (ANTI) Review - Pentest at the push of a button

Android Network Toolkit (ANTI) Review - Pentest at the push of a button

Jan 23, 2012
This Post reviews the newly released ANTI3 version. We've received a platinum account of ANTI3, before its official release, and this is our review: Recently White-Hat Hacker, Itzhak "Zuk" Avraham , the founder of zImperium unveiled its new app in Blackhat / Defcon19, introducing a new concept where both home users and local IT can have the same tools to, at the push of a button, check for their security faults. The new zImperium product, named Android Network Toolkit (or in short - ANTI), allows professional penetration testers, ethical hackers, IT and home users to scan for security issues in their network. In a few simple clicks ANTI covers the most advanced attack vectors in order to check for vulnerabilities, even those that up until now could only be performed by top-notch penetration testers. This means that while you might think that you're safe because you have a firewall on, with ANTI you can check and prove it (or add it to your penetration testing repor...
HashCodeCracker v1.2 Video Tutorials Available

HashCodeCracker v1.2 Video Tutorials Available

Oct 07, 2011
HashCodeCracker v1.2 Video Tutorials Available Hash Code Cracker V 1.2 was Released last week by BreakTheSecurity. This software will crack the MD5, SHA1,NTLM(Windows Password) hash codes. No need to install. Supports All platforms(windows XP/7,Linux,..). How to Run Hash Code Cracker Jar using Command Prompt~Password Cracking How to start Hash Code Cracker Jar with double Click~Password Cracking How to Crack the Password using Online Cracker Hash Code Cracker v1.2? Download  here  or from  here
Cracking iPhone Hotspot password in 50 Seconds

Cracking iPhone Hotspot password in 50 Seconds

Jun 20, 2013
The ability to turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot is a fantastically useful little tool in and of itself. When setting up a personal hotspot on their iPad or iPhone, users have the option of allowing iOS to automatically generate a password. According to a new study by Researchers at the University of Erlangen in Germany, iOS-generated passwords use a very specific formula one which the experienced hacker can crack in less than a minute. Using an iOS app written in Apple's own Xcode programming environment, the team set to work analyzing the words that Apple uses to generate its security keys . Apple's hotspot uses a standard WPA2 -type process, which includes the creation and passing of pre-shared keys (PSK). They found that the default passwords are made up of a combination of a short dictionary words followed by a series of random numbers and this method actually leaves them vulnerable to  brute force attack . The word list Apple uses contains approximately 52,500...
oclHashcat-plus v0.06 - Worlds fastest md5crypt, phpass, mscash2 and WPA/WPA2 cracker

oclHashcat-plus v0.06 - Worlds fastest md5crypt, phpass, mscash2 and WPA/WPA2 cracker

Sep 16, 2011
oclHashcat-plus v0.06 - Worlds fastest md5crypt, phpass, mscash2 and WPA/WPA2 cracker oclHashcat-plus faster than every other WPA cracker. The highly anticipated v0.06 of the Graphics Processing Unit accelerated password cracker tool oclHashcat-plus was released today. What makes it so special about this release is that it now has support for captured Wi-Fi Protected Access handshake cracking on top of all the other algorithms currently supported (MD5, MD5 Crypt, DES Crypt, NTLM, Domain Cached Credentials etc). It cracks WPA at an estimated rate of 0-300% faster than rivals, namely the python WPA cracker pyrit. It is coded in OpenCL so both NVIDIA and AMD devices are supported, however this improvement is more noticeable on AMD GPU devices as well as Multi-GPU system Features Worlds fastest md5crypt, phpass, mscash2 and WPA/WPA2 cracker Worlds first and only GPGPU based rule engine Free Multi-GPU (up to 16 gpus) Multi-Hash (up to 24 million hashes) Multi-OS (Linux & Wind...
oclHashcat-plus v0.08 Released - fastest password Cracker

oclHashcat-plus v0.08 Released - fastest password Cracker

May 01, 2012
oclHashcat-plus v0.08 Released - fastest password Cracker oclHashcat-plus is Worlds first and only GPGPU based rule engine and Worlds fastest md5crypt, phpass, mscash2 and WPA / WPA2 cracker. Features Free Multi-GPU (up to 16 gpus) Multi-Hash (up to 24 million hashes) Multi-OS (Linux & Windows native binaries) Multi-Platform (OpenCL & CUDA support) Multi-Algo (see below) Low resource utilization, you can still watch movies or play games while cracking Focuses highly iterated, modern hashes Focuses single dictionary based attacks Supports pause / resume while cracking Supports reading words from file Supports reading words from stdin Integrated thermal watchdog 20+ Algorithms implemented with performance in mind ... and much more Algorithms MD5 Joomla osCommerce, xt:Commerce SHA1 SHA-1(Base64), nsldap, Netscape LDAP SHA SSHA-1(Base64), nsldaps, Netscape LDAP SSHA Oracle 11g SMF > v1.1 OSX v10.4, v10.5, v10.6 MSSQL(2000) MSSQL(2005) MySQL ...
John The Ripper 1.7.7 Jumbo 5 - Latest Release Download

John The Ripper 1.7.7 Jumbo 5 - Latest Release Download

Jun 04, 2011
John The Ripper 1.7.7 Jumbo 5 - Latest Release Download New version of John The Ripper has been released, John the Ripper is a free password cracking software tool. Initially developed for the UNIX operating system, it currently runs on fifteen different platforms (11 architecture-specific flavors of Unix, DOS, Win32, BeOS, and OpenVMS). It is one of the most popular password testing/breaking programs as it combines a number of password crackers into one package, autodetects password hash types, and includes a customizable cracker. It can be run against various encrypted password formats including several crypt password hash types most commonly found on various UNIX flavors. John the Ripper Pro currently supports the following password hash types (and more are planned): Traditional DES-based Unix crypt – most commercial Unix systems (Solaris, AIX, …), Mac OS X 10.2, ancient Linux and *BSD "bigcrypt" – HP-UX, Tru64 / Digital Unix / OSF/1 BSDI-style extended DES-based crypt – BSD...
Hydra v6.3 Released with oracle & snmp-enum modules !

Hydra v6.3 Released with oracle & snmp-enum modules !

Apr 30, 2011
Hydra v6.3 Released with oracle & snmp-enum modules ! A very fast network logon cracker which support many different services. Have a look at the feature sets and services coverage page - including a speed comparison against ncrack and medusa! Number one of the biggest security holes are passwords, as every password security study shows. Hydra is a parallized login cracker which supports numerous protocols to attack. New modules are easy to add, beside that, it is flexible and very fast. Version 6.x was tested to compile cleanly on Linux, Windows/Cygwin, Solaris 11, FreeBSD 8.1 and OSX. CHANGELOG for 6.3 * Added patch by Petar(dot)Kaley(at)gmail.com which adds nice icons to cygwin hydra files * Added patch by Gauillaume Rousse which fixes a warning display * New Oracle module (for databases via OCI, for TNS Listener passwd, for SID enumeration) * New SMTP user enum module (using VRFY, EXPN or RCPT command) * Memory leak fix for -x bruteforcing option ...
Hydra v6.2 with a password bruteforcing mode, xmpp and irc modules, MD5/SHA1/ Support !

Hydra v6.2 with a password bruteforcing mode, xmpp and irc modules, MD5/SHA1/ Support !

Apr 07, 2011
Hydra v6.2 with a password bruteforcing mode, xmpp and irc modules, MD5/SHA1/ Support ! A very fast network logon cracker which support many different services. Have a look at the feature sets and services coverage page - including a speed comparison against ncrack and medusa! CHANGELOG for 6.2 * Added a patch by Jan Dlabal which adds password generation bruteforcing (no more password files :-) ) * New module: XMPP with TLS negotiation and LOGIN, PLAIN, CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, SCRAM-SHA1 support * New module: IRC is not dead ! use to find general server password and /oper credential * Added man pages from debian maintainers * Add support for new syntax: :// [: ][/ ] * Add TLS support for SIP * Add SCRAM-SHA1 auth to IMAP module * Add module usage help (-U) * Add support for RFC 4013: Internationalized Strings in SASL ("SASLPrep") * Add SASL + TLS support for NNTP * Add su...
Wophcrack – Web Based Interface For Ophcrack Password Cracking Tool

Wophcrack – Web Based Interface For Ophcrack Password Cracking Tool

Mar 18, 2011
I'm assuming everyone reading already knows about Ophcrack – the awesome time/memory trade-off password cracker. Well here is a nifty web-based interface for it. Rainbow Tables are really useful when cracking password hashes, but one major disadvantage of these tables is their size which can be hundreds of gigs for complex tables. The author thought it would be extremely useful to have a personal web interface for your rainbow tables which you can access from anywhere on the web anywhere without having to carry the large tables with you everywhere you go. And well here we are, Wophcrack (Web) Ophcrack. When cracking LM or NTLM hashes Ophcrack is a great tool as we discussed recently, it provides both a GUI and CLI options along with some free and paid tables. The author basically wrote a quick and dirty PHP based web frontend for Ophcrack. Wophcrack was designed to work on Backtrack 4 R2, Although it can be install on any Linux distribution with some small adj...
John the Ripper 1.7.7 new version Released !

John the Ripper 1.7.7 new version Released !

Apr 28, 2011
John the Ripper 1.7.7 new version Released ! "John the Ripper is a fast password cracker, currently available for many flavors of Unix, Windows, DOS, BeOS, and OpenVMS. Its primary purpose is to detect weak Unix passwords. It supports several crypt(3) password hash types commonly found on Unix systems, as well as Windows LM hashes." This is the change log for JtR version 1.7.7: Added Intel AVX and AMD XOP instruction sets support for bitslice DES (with C compiler intrinsics). New make targets: linux-x86-64-avx, linux-x86-64-xop, linux-x86-avx, and linux-x86-xop (these require recent versions of GCC and GNU binutils). A "dummy" "format" is now supported (plaintext passwords encoded in hexadecimal and prefixed with "$dummy$") – for faster testing and tuning of custom wordlists, rule sets, .chr files, and external modes on already known or artificial passwords, as well as for testing of future and modified versions of John itself. Apache "$apr1$" MD5-based password hashes are now ...
PenTBox 1.4 – Penetration Testing Security Suite Download

PenTBox 1.4 – Penetration Testing Security Suite Download

Apr 10, 2011
PenTBox 1.4 – Penetration Testing Security Suite Download PenTBox, a security framework written in Ruby and multiplatform (actually working even on iOS and Android!). Tools & Features (Updated) Technical features - GNU/GPLv3 License. Free in freedom and in price. - Multi-platform (Ruby: GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac OS, *BSD, iOS, Android, …). - Compatible with Ruby and JRuby. - Multithreading (native threads in Ruby >= 1.9 and JRuby). - Doesn't require additional libraries (non standard are included). - Modular (easy to expand and customize). Tools (SVN Version) - Cryptography tools Base64 Encoder & Decoder Multi-Digest (MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512, RIPEMD-160) Hash Password Cracker (MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512, RIPEMD-160) Secure Password Generator - Network tools Net DoS Tester TCP port scanner Honeypot Fuzzer DNS and host gathering - Web HTTP directory bruteforce HTTP common files bruteforce A moderate number of people are using it...
Ani-Shell v1.4 Released With Python - Bind Shell , Anti-Crawler Feature and MD5 Cracker

Ani-Shell v1.4 Released With Python - Bind Shell , Anti-Crawler Feature and MD5 Cracker

Sep 25, 2011
Ani-Shell v1.4 Released With Python - Bind Shell , Anti-Crawler Feature and MD5 Cracker Ani-Shell is a simple PHP shell with some unique features like Mass Mailer , A simple Web-Server Fuzzer , a DDoser , A MD5 hash Cracker , Python and PHP Bind-Shells , Anti-Crawler Features etc! This shell has immense capabilities and have been written with some coding standards in mind for better editing and customization! New Features :- MD5 Hash Cracker Python Bind-Shell Anti-Crawler Function Shell Support for some Older Servers Better CSS Whole New Logo Ani-Shell Project Page : https://sourceforge.net/projects/ani-shell/ Ani-Shell Homepage : https://ani-shell.sourceforge.net/ Default login : lionaneesh Default password : lionaneesh
The Hacker News Hacking Awards : Best of Year 2011

The Hacker News Hacking Awards : Best of Year 2011

Dec 31, 2011
The Hacker News Hacking Awards : Best of Year 2011 2011 has been labeled the " Year of the Hack " or " Epic #Fail 2011 ". Hacking has become much easier over the years, which is why 2011 had a lot of hacking for good and for bad. Hackers are coming up with tools as well as finding new methods for hacking faster then companies can increase their security.  Every year there are always forward advancements in the tools and programs that can be used by the hackers. At the end of year 2011 we decided to give " The Hacker News Awards 2011 ". The Hacker News Awards will be an annual awards ceremony celebrating the achievements and failures of security researchers and the Hacking community. The THN Award is judged by a panel of respected security researchers and Editors at The Hacker News. Year 2011 came to an end following Operation Payback and Antisec, which targeted companies refusing to accept payments to WikiLeak's, such as, Visa and Amazon. Those attacks were carrie...
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