HASH CRACKING (JOHN THE RIPPER & HASHCAT)

                                    

                                HASHCRACKING 

THE BASICS:    

                                                          KEY TERMS

                        

 1.Ciphertext -                     The result of encrypting a plaintext, encrypted data

                       

 2.Cipher  -                            A method of encrypting or decrypting data. Modern ciphers are cryptographic,  but there are many non cryptographic ciphers like Caesar.

 3. Plaintext -                        Data before encryption, often text but not always . Could be a photograph or other file

 

 4.Encryption -                     Transforming data into ciphertext, using a cipher.

 5.Encoding -                        NOT a form of encryption, just a form of data representation like base64. Immediately reversible.

 6.Key -                                 Some information that is needed to correctly decrypt the ciphertext and obtain the plaintext.                         

 7.Passphrase -                      Separate to the key, a passphrase is similar to a password and used to      protect a key.                         

 8.Asymmetric encryption -  Uses different keys to encrypt and decrypt.

 9.Symmetric encryption -     Uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt

 10.Brute force -                     Attacking cryptography by trying every different password or every  different key

 11.Cryptanalysis -                  Attacking cryptography by finding a weakness in the underlying maths

                                       JOHN THE RIPPER

                                  john -    invokes the programs

                       [path to file] - file containing the hash you are trying to crack

                                 --wordlist=[wordlist] - specifies using wordlist mode and the file                                  

 syntax:

                  john --wordlist=[wordlist] [path to file]

                                 --format=[format] - tells John what format the hash is in

                  

                john --format=[format] --wordlist=[wordlist] [path to file]

                 

NOTE:       To check if you need to add the prefix or not, you can list all of John's formats using "john --list=formats" and either check manually or grep for your hash type using something like "john --list=formats" | grep -iF "md5".