5 tools to test your password security
Computer hacking is constantly evolving and the range of tools used today is very wide. Here are 5 must-have tools regularly used by professionals to test password security .
If you are passionate about computer security and want to learn more, then one of these tools will definitely help you achieve your goal.
And if you hate hackers then it’s better to know these tools to protect yourself. Remember to make your passwords more difficult to hack by including, for example, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and special characters.
The 5 tools that I present to you here use two techniques: the dictionary and brute force.
Brute force consists in testing, one by one, all the possible combinations.
The dictionary consists of testing a series of potential passwords, one after the other, hoping that the password used for encryption is contained in the dictionary.
This method relies on the fact that many people use common passwords (for example: a first name, a color or the name of an animal).
Cain and Abel
Cain & Abel is a free tool. It runs under windows and it allows to find various kinds of passwords using the dictionary, by exhaustive search or via rainbow tables.
Download Cain & Abel
John the Ripper
John the Ripper is free password cracking software available for Linux, Unix and Mac OS X. It is able to find different password encryption formats including crypt (Unix), MD5, Blowfish passwords , Kerberos, AFS, and LM hashes.
3.Rainbow Crack
RainbowCrack runs on Windows and Linux. It uses rainbow tabes which is based on the time-memory compromise technique. This technique is different from the brute force attack and it drastically reduces the time needed to crack a password.
Brutus
This is probably the easiest tool to use. It runs on Windows and is fast and flexible. It hasn’t been updated for months but may still be useful. The archive password is darknet123.
Download Brutus
Aircrack-ng
Aircrack-ng is a suite of wireless network monitoring software whose main use is to “crack” the WEP and WPA keys of WIFI networks. This software works under Windows and Linux but some almost essential features are impossible under Windows (packet injection for example).