Password security. John the Ripper attempts to crack passwords by comparing the hashed version with hashes computed from common words, permutations of common words, pointless additions ("alex123", "betty222" and the like).
On any modern system, no non-administrative user should be able to read the hashed passwords at all, so you should understand that this is not a black-hat tool used to crack your passwords (though similar tools can be used to generate brute force password guessing). If somebody can read your shadow password file, you are already in trouble.
If you have lost or forgotten your Linux password, this will help.. If it's not Linux, but SCO or some other Unix, the suggestions at Lost or Forgotten Root Password SCO Unix may help you.
No, this is a tool for administrators to test for weak passwords. For Linux shadow passwords, you use the included "unshadow" to create a file to run against:
./unshadow /etc/passwd /etc/shadow > pw1 ./john pw1
and sit back to wait.. of course this is one of the few times where you (the administrator) are actually hoping that John takes a long time and finds nothing. Even if the passwords aren't all that good, John is probably going to run a goodly period of time. If you use it in incremental mode ("john -i"), it might run forever - seriously. As the docs explain:
This will use the default incremental mode parameters, which are defined in ~/john.ini's [Incremental:All] section. In the configuration file supplied with John these parameters are to use the full 95 character set, and to try all possible password lengths, from 0 to 8. (By zero password length I mean a hashed empty string, this sometimes happens.) Don't expect this to terminate in a reasonable time (unless all the passwords were weak and got cracked), read doc/MODES for an explanation.
You really need to read the documentation here. It isn't difficult to understand, but you need to read it.
What you DON'T want to see is something like this:
# ./john pw1 Loaded 1 password (FreeBSD MD5 [32/32]) fred123 (fred) guesses: 1 time: 0:00:00:00 100% (1) c/s: 625 trying: fred123 #
That popped back almost before my finger bounced off the ENTER key. When I ran it with -i, it took a bit longer (actually about two hours with MaxLen set to 12), but when you consider how many combinations it had to try before getting to that, it's gets there pretty darn fast. John never did crack my real passwords, though of course it would if had I left it running long enough. Don't forget to set MaxLen in john.ini if your passwords exceed its default of 8 (and they should!).
If you are curious about what John is up to, press ENTER while it is running:
guesses: 1 time: 0:00:00:31 8% (2) c/s: 1624 trying: dexter1 guesses: 1 time: 0:00:00:32 8% (2) c/s: 1624 trying: Mustang1 guesses: 1 time: 0:00:00:34 9% (2) c/s: 1624 trying: Stacey1 guesses: 1 time: 0:00:00:35 9% (2) c/s: 1625 trying: Gunner1 guesses: 1 time: 0:00:01:13 20% (2) c/s: 1625 trying: ariel!
When John cracks a password, it gets stored in "john.pot". For example, after cracking Fred's password, john.pot contained:
$1$2wf30E0F$zBGoSoo0aS9C0eEi/HqoH1:fred123
The "fred123" was, in fact, the actual password used, but you have
no absolute knowledge that is the case. It's pretty likely, but it
is at least in the realm of possibility that two different words
can hash to the same string. You are quite safe in assuming
that did not happen, and would never go broke betting against it.
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More Articles by Tony Lawrence © 2011-03-25 Tony Lawrence
Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men. (Pythagoras)
Sun Nov 8 18:09:01 2009: 7499 TonyLawrence
At linuxquestions.org, a post asked how to determine the password a user
used.
In the course of my reply, I posted a link here. A moderator deleted it, saying
// pcunix, the LQ Rules make it clear that this isn't the place to receive or provide help with cracking.
I'm pretty annoyed by that... all the other answers told the poster that it couldn't be done, that all he could do was change it. I don't agree with the moderator.
You need to BE root to use John the Ripper. It's a legitimate tool for administrators to detect weak passwords.
Your opinions?
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John the Ripper: Tech Words of the Day Copyright © March 2005 Tony Lawrence
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