Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! Last week, I started off my password cracking series with an introduction on the principles and technologies involved in the art of cracking passwords. In past guides, I showed some specific tools and techniques for cracking Windows, online, Wi-Fi, Linux, and even SNMP passwords. This series is intended to help you hone your skills in each of these areas and expand into some, as yet, untouched areas.
Cracking the password for WPA2 networks has been roughly the same for many years, but a newer attack requires less interaction and info than previous techniques and has the added advantage of being able to target access points with no one connected. The latest attack against the PMKID uses Hashcat to crack WPA passwords and allows hackers to find networks with weak passwords more easily.
Password cracking is a specialty of some hackers, and it's often thought that raw computing power trumps everything else. That is true in some cases, but sometimes it's more about the wordlist. Making a custom, targeted wordlist can cut down cracking time considerably, and Wordlister can help with that.
Hashes are commonly used to store sensitive information like credentials to avoid storing them in plaintext. With tools like Hashcat, it's possible to crack these hashes, but only if we know the algorithm used to generate the hash. Using a tool called hash-identifier, we can easily fingerprint any hashes to discover the right Hashcat mode to use to retrieve a password.
While the security behind WEP networks was broken in 2005, modern tools have made cracking them incredibly simple. In densely populated areas, WEP networks can be found in surprising and important places to this day, and they can be cracked in a matter of minutes. We'll show you how a hacker would do so and explain why they should be careful to avoid hacking into a honeypot.
Beginners learning brute-forcing attacks against WPA handshakes are often let down by the limitations of default wordlists like RockYou based on stolen passwords. The science of brute-forcing goes beyond using these default lists, allowing us to be more efficient by making customized wordlists. Using the Mentalist, we can generate millions of likely passwords based on details about the target.
Welcome, my hacker novitiates! As part of my series on hacking Wi-Fi, I want to demonstrate another excellent piece of hacking software for cracking WPA2-PSK passwords. In my last post, we cracked WPA2 using aircrack-ng. In this tutorial, we'll use a piece of software developed by wireless security researcher Joshua Wright called cowpatty (often stylized as coWPAtty). This app simplifies and speeds up the dictionary/hybrid attack against WPA2 passwords, so let's get to it!
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! When Wi-Fi was first developed and popularized in the late '90s, security was not a major concern. Unlike wired connections, anyone could simply connect to a Wi-Fi access point (AP) and steal bandwidth, or worse—sniff the traffic.
While password cracking and WPS setup PIN attacks get a lot of attention, social engineering attacks are by far the fastest way of obtaining a Wi-Fi password. One of the most potent Wi-Fi social engineering attacks is Wifiphisher, a tool that blocks the internet until desperate users enter the Wi-Fi password to enable a fake router firmware update.
SentrySafe puts all sorts of measures in place to protect your valuables and important documents. This particular SentrySafe has an electronic lock, four 1-inch bolts to keep the door firmly in place, pry-resistant hinges, and it's able to withstand drops of up to 15 feet. That all sounds great, until you find out that you can open this safe—and pretty much every safe like it—in a matter of seconds using only a magnet. A rare earth magnet, to be precise.
Eggs are one of the most versatile foods imaginable. They can be cooked in tons of different ways, eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and go with just about anything. Most of us have hard-boiled and scrambled eggs before, but have you ever thought about combining the two? That looks pretty good, doesn't it? But it's not exactly the kind of scrambled and hard-boiled eggs combo I'm referring to. And thankfully, this isn't what I'm talking about either... No, even though balut may look like ...
The bread at your local supermarket will most likely always be fresh, but how do you know which loaf is the freshest out of the bunch? You can squeeze and inspect them like an annoying TSA agent, but there's actually a much simpler way to do it.
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers. When Wi-Fi was first developed in the late 1990s, Wired Equivalent Privacy was created to give wireless communications confidentiality. WEP, as it became known, proved terribly flawed and easily cracked. You can read more about that in my beginner's guide to hacking Wi-Fi.
The Chinese government's tight restrictions on gathering data by foreign firms for 3D mapping, the lifeblood of machine-taught driverless systems, could at least slow down access to the market by Waymo, Tesla, General Motors (GM), Ford, and other players hoping to make inroads there.
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! A short while back, I began a new series on database hacking, and now it's time to continue and extend your education in that field. As you know, the database contains all of the most valuable info for the hacker, including personally identifiable information, credit card numbers, intellectual property, etc. So, it's the ultimate goal of cybercrime and the APT hacker.
With a simple social engineering trick, sudo passwords can be captured in seconds without the target's knowledge. The passwords can then be saved to a file or exfiltrated to another computer on the network.
A flaw in WPS, or WiFi Protected Setup, known about for over a year by TNS, was finally exploited with proof of concept code. Both TNS, the discoverers of the exploit and Stefan at .braindump have created their respective "reaver" and "wpscrack" programs to exploit the WPS vulnerability. From this exploit, the WPA password can be recovered almost instantly in plain-text once the attack on the access point WPS is initiated, which normally takes 2-10 hours (depending on which program you use).
Following the first part in this series on advanced cracking techniques, we are going to go over how we can intelligently crack passwords using the old-fashioned bruteforce method. These unique cracking techniques aren't widely used, because most crackers are Script Kiddies who have no idea what the concepts are behind cracking passwords, thus, word won't get around too quickly.
How did it happen? How did your ultra-secure WPA password on your wireless network get broken into? Well, you might have just found yourself at the mercy of a cracker.
How to Crack Passwords Faster by Putting Your GPU to Work with HashcatSecurity on the internet is always changing. Not too long ago, having a 10 character password meant that you were safe from all forms of hash cracking. Hash cracking is when you take a string of characters that have been passed through a cryptographic hash and try to reverse them. The normal processors that are housed inside of our computer cases are general purpose. The processors are not meant for handling complex math an...
If you've ever heard software piracy terminology being discussed, I'm sure the term KeyGens came up. KeyGens is short for key generator, which is a program that exploits algorithmic faults in software by generating software license keys that appear to be genuine. Normally used as a technique to protect the source code software and prevent piracy, a key generator exploits the key algorithm to effectively nullify the need for any software licenses. For example, we must try to find patterns in t...
Lifehacker posts an article on the art of cracking weak passwords, courtesy of Internet standards expert, CEO of web company iFusion Labs, and blogger John Pozadzides. Pozadzides certainly knows a thing or two about password logic. (Note: this information is not intended to hack into accounts, but rather to protect you from using weak passwords).
If you've ever wondered how software pirates can take software and crack it time and time again, even with security in place, this small series is for you. Even with today's most advanced methods of defeating piracy in place, it is still relatively easy to crack almost any program in the world. This is mainly due to computer processes' ability to be completely manipulated by an assembly debugger. Using this, you can completely bypass the registration process by making it skip the application'...
Without Tools, Crack a Combination lock! Meant to break into your own lock in case you forgot the combination. Learn how to reduce possible combinations from 64,000 to 100. This lock cracking trick will help you next time you need to pick a combination lock.
This video won't show you how to crack a safe but it will show you the next best thing: cracking a combination lock or master lock! We do recommend only trying this on a lock you have forgotten the combination to and not other unlawful purposes. Watch this video tutorial and learn how to retrieve the combination from a lock. Hack your own lock or your friends and you have the potential for great practical jokes.
Lock picking is a great skill that takes lots of practice and patience to master, but some locks simply can't be picked, like a Master Lock combination padlock. With a combination lock, you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way—cracking combinations.
Learn how to create a simple cracking animation when working in Blender. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular open-source 3D computer graphics application or are a seasoned digital artist merely on the lookout for new tips and tricks, you're sure to be well served by this free video software tutorial. For more information, including step-by-step instructions, take a look!
Just like the title says, learn how to crack a master lock. Not pick the lock (picking a master lock will not get you the combo). You don't need any special tools to crack this master lock- all you need is the right technique. Crack master locks for fun only - don't use this for illegal purposes. Great trick if you lose your combination to your master lock. All you need is a little math. Learn how to hack a master lock with this lock cracking tutorial.
Interested in finding out just how secure your WEP-protected wireless network is? Let this video be your guide. It's a simple process and this home-networking how-to will teach you everything you'll need to know. For specifics, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started cracking WEP networks with BackTrack yourself, watch this helpful video guide.
Coconuts are delicious, but such a pain to break open… why is that? Though that mystery may never be solved, the mystery of cracking open a coconut can be. This video teaches you just how to crack open a coconut. He does struggle through his attempt, showing you that it is a very hard task, but gives you a very successful alternative to opening it when all else fails.
Cracking an egg is a simple task once you have the technique down, so check out this video. Keep the shells out of your food!
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! I have already done a few tutorials on password cracking, including ones for Linux and Windows, WEP and WPA2, and even online passwords using THC Hydra. Now, I thought it might be worthwhile to begin a series on password cracking in general. Password cracking is both an art and a science, and I hope to show you the many ways and subtleties involved.
Pyrit is one of the most powerful WPA/WPA2 cracking tools in a hacker's arsenal, with the ability to benchmark a computer's CPU speeds, analyze capture files for crackable handshakes, and even tap into GPU password-cracking power. To demonstrate how quickly it can hack a WPA/WPA2 password, we'll use it to play a Wi-Fi hacking CTF game anyone can practice for less than $10.
Welcome back, my apprentice hackers! In this series on password cracking, I have been attempting to develop your skills in the age-old art of password cracking. Although it might seem like a simple and straightforward exercise, those of you who have attempted password cracking know that there are many subtleties to this art.
After gaining access to a root account, the next order of business is using that power to do something more significant. If the user passwords on the system can be obtained and cracked, an attacker can use them to pivot to other machines if the login is the same across systems. There are two tried-and-true password cracking tools that can accomplish this: John the Ripper and Hashcat.
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! Continuing with my series on how to crack passwords, I now want to introduce you to one of the newest and best designed password crackers out there—hashcat. The beauty of hashcat is in its design, which focuses on speed and versatility. It enables us to crack multiple types of hashes, in multiple ways, very fast.
Microsoft Office files can be password-protected in order to prevent tampering and ensure data integrity. But password-protected documents from earlier versions of Office are susceptible to having their hashes extracted with a simple program called office2john. Those extracted hashes can then be cracked using John the Ripper and Hashcat.
Welcome back, my novice hackers! In my series on cracking passwords, I began by showing off some basic password-cracking principles; developed an efficient password-cracking strategy; demonstrated how to use Hashcat, one of the most powerful password-cracking programs; and showed how to create a custom wordlist using Crunch. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a custom wordlist based upon the industry or business of the targets using CeWL.
Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! In the first part of my series on Wi-Fi hacking, we discussed the basic terms and technologies associated with Wi-Fi. Now that you have a firm grip on what Wi-Fi is exactly and how it works, we can start diving into more advance topics on how to hack Wi-Fi.
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! Several of you have written me asking how to crack passwords. The answer, in part, depends upon whether you have physical access to the computer, what operating system you are running, and how strong the passwords are.
