============================================
   Back To The Basics On Password File Cracking
   ============================================
   Author : Netw0rk Bug
   E-Mail : bug@netw0rk.freeserve.co.uk
   Date : 14th January 1999
   ============================================


   There are people out there who still don't know how to crack a passwd file.  So
   I wrote this tutorial on using 
   John The Ripper to crack them.  First of all you will need to download the
   cracker.  There are dozens available 
   on the net, however I reccommend that you download John The Ripper.  Get the
   latest version from its homepage:

   http://www.false.com/security/john/

   There are different ways of using John The Ripper to crack passwd files.  I am
   briefly going to describe them.  
   The first method that you should try is the single crack mode.  This is bound to
   get the most passwords cracked 
   in the little time that it takes.  Basically what it does is take the username
   and then try different variations 
   of it for the password.  You'd be surprised how many people choose a password
   the same as their username.  
   Anyway... to run John The Ripper In Single Crack Mode make sure you are in a
   command prompt in the directory 
   where john is locted and you need to type the command:

   john -single <name of passwd file>

   thats without the < and >.  Depending on the size of the passwd file and the
   speed of your puter this will take 
   10-30 seconds.  As the passwords are cracked then they will show up on the
   screen.  The cracked passwords will 
   then be stored in the file:

   john.pot

   which is in the same directory as John.  So if you ever want to see the accounts
   that you have cracked from a 
   certain passwd file then you need to issue the command:

   john -show <name of passwd file>

   Now that is the quickest way to crack a couple of accounts.  The next method
   that you should try is using a 
   wordlist.  Basically you define a wordlist and then john will go through each
   word and see if it is that password 
   for any of the accounts in the passwd file.  So you now need to go and get a
   dictionary file or wordlist of some 
   sort.  There is one that comes with john which contains a list of popular
   passwords that people choose, so to try 
   with that wordlist you need to issue the command:

   john -wordfile:<name of wordlist> <name of passwd file>

   The name of the wordlist that comes with john is called password.1st
   So you now need to go ahead and download some dictionary files off the net. try:

   ftp://sable.ox.ac.uk/pub/wordlists/

   The third way of using john is by far the most powerfull method.  However this
   can take some time.  This method 
   is brute forcing the passwd file.  Basically this is when John goes through
   every single combination of characters 
   possible.  So as you can imagine this can take some time.  This is called
   incremental mode.  However, there are 
   different types of incremental mode that you can use.

   1) This is alpa mode.  This only uses 26 different characters.
   2) This is digit mode.  This only uses the 10 different digits.
   3) The all mode.  This uses all 96 characters.
   4) Lanman mode.  This uses the 69 lanman characters.

   So now your asking yourself, so how the hell do you use these different modes? 
   Well its simple.  You ust type 
   the command:

   john -incremental:<mode> <name of passwd file>

   In place of mode you can put either all, alpha, digits or lanman.  (thats
   without the commas and the full stop by the way)

   A little tip for you.  If you want to crack more than one passwd file at once
   then you type the command:

   john -single <name of passwd file1> <name of passwd file2> <name of passwd
   file3>

   You can do this in all modes of passwd crackig and use as many passwd files as
   you want.

   Now if you are using the incremental modes then this will take some time and the
   chances are that you will want to 
   use your puter for other purposes or maybe switch it off or something.  So if
   you are using incremental modes then 
   you may want to save where you are up to on your password cracking. This can
   easily be done.  When ever you press 
   a key while john is cracking away you will see your progress and it will also
   save its position in a file called 
   restore in the same directory.  So all you need to do is press the space bar or
   something so john saves where it is 
   up to then if you press  CTRL+C it will stop cracking.  So when you want to come
   back and carry on with your 
   cracking you issue the command:

   john -restore

   and thats all there is too it.  I'll cya all soon
   Don't be afraid if any  of yuo newbies want to mail me and ask questions.  I
   won't bite your head off like most 
   people would,well at least I promise not to draw blood anyway.