❇️ What are password cracking techniques ?

Password crackers use two primary methods to identify correct passwords: brute-force and dictionary attacks. However, there are plenty of other password cracking methods, including the following:
Brute force : This attack runs through combinations of characters of a predetermined length until it finds the combination that matches the password.
Dictionary search : Here, a password cracker searches each word in the dictionary for the correct password. Password dictionaries exist for a variety of topics and combinations of topics, including politics, movies and music groups.
Phishing : These attacks are used to gain access to user passwords without the use of a password cracking tool. Instead, a user is fooled into clicking on an email attachment. From here, the attachment could install malware or prompt the user to use their email to sign into a false version of a website, revealing their password.
Malware : Similar to phishing, using malware is another method of gaining unauthored access to passwords without the use of a password cracking tool. Malware such as keyloggers, which track keystrokes, or screen scrapers, which take screenshots, are used instead.
Rainbow attack : This approach involves using different words from the original password in order to generate other possible passwords. Malicious actors can keep a list called a rainbow table with them. This list contains leaked and previously cracked passwords, which will make the overall password cracking method more effective.
Guessing : An attacker may be able to guess a password without the use of tools. If the threat actor has enough information about the victim or the victim is using a common enough password, they may be able to come up with the correct characters.
- Some password cracking programs may use hybrid attack methodologies where they search for combinations of dictionary entries and numbers or special characters. For example, a password cracker may search for ants01, ants02, ants03, etc. This can be helpful when users have been advised to include a number in their password.

❇️ What are password cracking tools?

Password crackers can be used maliciously or legitimately to recover lost passwords. Among the password cracking tools available are the following three

Cain and Abel : This password recovery software can recover passwords for Microsoft Windows user accounts and Microsoft Access passwords. Cain and Abel uses a graphical user interface, making it more user-friendly than comparable tools. The software uses dictionary lists and brute-force attack methods.
Ophcrack : This password cracker uses rainbow tables and brute-force attacks to crack passwords. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
John the Ripper : This tool uses a dictionary list approach and is available primarily for macOS and Linux systems. The program has a command prompt to crack passwords, making it more difficult to use than software like Cain and Abel.

Hashcats : Hashcat is a password cracking tool used for licit and illicit purposes. ... It gives the user the ability to brute-force credential stores using known hashes, to conduct dictionary attacks and rainbow tables, and to reverse engineer readable information on user behavior into hashed-password combination attacks.

Hydra :