Password Cracking Tools: THC Hydra, John the Ripper, RainbowCrack, and Ophcrack

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CO4509-COMPUTER SECURITY
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Overview of THC Hydra password.............................................................................................3
How to crack passwords using THC-Hydra................................................................................4
John the ripper Password Cracking tool..........................................................................................6
How to use John Ripper...............................................................................................................7
RainbowCrack Password Cracking tool..........................................................................................9
Overview of RainbowCrack tool.................................................................................................9
Using rainbowCrack tool...........................................................................................................11
Ophcrack........................................................................................................................................13
Overview of OphCrack..............................................................................................................13
How one can use Ophcrack LiveCD..........................................................................................14
Justification of the best tool...........................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Network security can be an overwhelming; the world of network security can be
complicated. Network administrators opt to use network security tools to assists in monitoring
Information Technology (IT) environment. One of the most popular form of attack is password
cracking. Password hacking software has evolved tremendously in the current 21st century.
Password hacking software usually involves a cracker brute forcing their way into a certain
website admin panel or a login page. There are several password cracking tools. Every tool has
its own advantages and disadvantages.
Passwords are cracked using three major forms which are brute force, dictionary, and
hybrid. Dictionary form of attack uses a list of worlds when they are encrypted at a time and
then checks if hashes are equal. Hybrid is done through mutation filters. This paper will be
covering four major password cracking tools which are; THC hydra, John the ripper,
RainbowCrack, and ophCrack.
THC Hydra password cracking tool
Overview of THC Hydra password
THC Hydra is a tool used by hackers to crack passwords by enforcing both brute force
attack and dictionary type of attack. Brute force implies that the software launches a number of
passwords at a login until the correct password is achieved. Since people want to use password
that they will not forget, they tend to use words that are common in their lives like their name,
football team, and place of birth. These information is easy to fetch in the social media and so
when the hacker has analyzed this data it be compiled into a password list, which is later used by
hydra to execute brute force attack. The password list combined with the easily known
passwords, will be taken by hydra which will execute the brute force attack. With time,

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depending on the processor’s and internet’s speed, hydra will systematically execute each
password until the correct one is gotten. Incorporated in the Hydra package is the password-
inspector that reads passwords and output those that meet the requirements. If the cracking
session is successful, hydra outputs the log in name plus the password (Shema, 2014, p. 34).
The advantage of this tool is that it provides the hacker with various protocols to attack
and it is easy to add new modules to it. Hydra supports various modules like HTTP-
Proxy,Rlogin,MS-SQL,SMTP Enum, Cisco enable,Cisco auth,Cisco AAA, NNTP, PC-
Anywhere,PC-NTFS,LDAP among others. These modules make it efficient and easy to use. Also
the tool has the ability to perform what network administrators refer to as dictionary attacks
which is against over fifty protocols which includes ftp, smb, and telnet
How to crack passwords using THC-Hydra
 One needs to first download the very recent version of THC hydra
 Change the THC-hydra directory
 Type ./configure and then make
 Once installed one has a new application which is reffered to as xHyra as shown by the
screenshot below