Evaluation of Password Cracking Tools: John the Ripper and Rainbow Crack

Running head: MN623 CYBER SECURITY AND ANALYTICS
MN623 CYBER SECURITY AND ANALYTICS
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MN623 CYBER SECURITY AND ANALYTICS1
Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................... 2
Outline............................................................................................................. 2
Demonstration................................................................................................. 2
Password cracking counter measures...........................................................2
Explanation of these tool for cracking password.......................................3
Steps for John the Ripper...........................................................................3
Steps of using Rainbow Crack...................................................................4
Comparison...................................................................................................... 4
Analysis............................................................................................................ 5
Penetration Testing.......................................................................................... 5
Conclusion........................................................................................................ 6
Reference......................................................................................................... 7

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Introduction
The following report is all evaluation of two tool for password cracking that is
John the Ripper and Rainbow crack. In addition, a penetration testing has been done
on the ecommerce website of clothing shop. Linux based FTP server will be used for
analyzing different security vulnerabilities and breaches [5]. In the coming pages of
the report, a demonstration of the tools for cracking the password has been
discussed in brief. A discussion has been provided with respect to password
cracking measures along with explanation for these tools for cracking the password.
In addition, a comparison has been done with respect to the tool that is the time
needed for cracking the password and its ease of use.
Outline
John the ripper: John the Ripper is a well-known open source tool needed
for password cracking. It merely aims to crack different kind of programs and run on
both modes that is brute force and dictionary attack. It is merely needed by
different enterprises for detecting weak password which can put network security at
risk [9]. The software can easily run on variety of password cracking methods that is
required for gaining different user accounts. John the Ripper is generally available
for most of the common platform. It is a defined as a free and open source version
which is found as a source code.Rainbow crack: It is a general purpose for the implementation for faster
memory trade-off. It is generally required for cracking hashes by the help of rainbow
table. Rainbow Crack makes use of time-memory algorithm which is needed for
cracking hash. It aims differ from brute forces for hash crack. A brute force has
crack aims generate all the given plain text and aim to compute all the hashes in
the fly. It can be easily compared with the hashes, with hash that needs to be
cracked [2]. As soon as, the match has been found all the possible plain text needs
to be tested and no kind match is there and the plaintext is missing. By the help of
hash cracking all the required computation result are discarded. A time-memory
hash will crack the overall need in the pre-computation stage. At the instance of
plain text pairs in the selected hash algorithm for plaintext length and the resulting
in storage of files for rainbow table. It is found to be time consuming for carrying out

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these kind of computation. As soon as the pre-computation has been finished,
hashes are stored in table which needs to be cracked with better performance.
Demonstration
Password cracking counter measures
User need to have certain number of countermeasures which is required for
preventing any kind of hacking of important password. Password in one system is
equal to password for many other systems [4]. This is mainly done because many
person makes use same password for each and every system that is being used by
them. Password Policies: Being an ethical hacker, a user need to have an idea
with respect to the need of securing password. There is list of tips which can be
used for securing password like
 Demonstrating the way by which secure password can be created
 Building user awareness on social engineering attacks
 Using upper case and lower case letter
 Changing password on interval of 6 to 12 months
 Using different system for each system
 Avoiding the storage option of user password in case of unsecured central
location.Other Countermeasures: There is list of other countermeasures for
password-cracking like
 Help in security auditing which helps in monitoring and tracking different
password attack.
 Keeping the System patched
Explanation of these tool for cracking password
Steps for John the Ripper
There is a list of steps for cracking the password in Windows Operating
System by making of John the Ripper like
Step 1: Extracting hashes from Windows