Password cracking applications are software programs designed for the purpose of recovering passwords from data that has been stored in or transmitted by a computer system. The purpose of such an application is to identify weak passwords that may be vulnerable to a dictionary attack.
A dictionary attack is a type of brute force attack that relies on a dictionary of words and common passwords to crack the encrypted password. A typical dictionary attack first starts by reading a list of words from a predefined dictionary, then tries to use each word as the password in a particular case. If the application succeeds in finding the correct password, then the user account is compromised.
There are many types of password cracking applications that range from very simple to sophisticated. A few examples would be Hydra, John the Ripper, and Aircrack-ng. Hydra is a very versatile tool that can be used for multiple security audit tasks, such as dictionary, brute force, and reverse engineering attacks. John the Ripper is a fast and simple tool used for dictionary cracking. Aircrack-ng is another extremely powerful tool used to crack Wi-Fi networks by effortlessly running password guessing games against wireless authentication protocols.
Password cracking applications can be especially useful in organizations where information security is of paramount importance. The use of a strong and secure password is the best defence against malicious actors attempting to gain access to sensitive data and resources. As such, many organizations use password cracking applications to test the strength of user passwords, as well as to identify any potentially weak passwords that could be exploited.
In addition, password cracking applications can also be used to recover forgotten passwords, and to detect any passwords that have been used multiple times across different systems. This can give organizations a better understanding of how secure their data and resources are, and allow them to create more secure policies for their own protection.
