1. John the Ripper

Description:
John the Ripper (often referred to as “John”) is a fast password-cracking tool that is primarily used for cracking Unix password hashes but also supports many other formats, such as Windows LM hashes, ZIP files, and more. It uses dictionary and brute-force attacks to find weak passwords.

Examples:

• 1. Basic Password Cracking:
     • john hashfile.txt

Explanation: Uses the default wordlist to crack the password hashes in the hashfile.txt.

• 1. Specify a Custom Wordlist:
     • john –wordlist=/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt hashfile.txt

Explanation: Uses a specific wordlist (rockyou.txt) to perform a dictionary attack on the hash file.

• 1. Resume Cracking from a Saved Session:
     • john –restore=session_name

Explanation: Restores a password cracking session named session_name to continue where it left off.

• 1. Show Cracked Passwords:
     • john –show hashfile.txt

Explanation: Displays the passwords that have already been cracked from the given hash file.