“John the ripper”….. the ultimate password cracker for Linux/Unix

Installation & configuration:

1. Download John the ripper  from www.openwall.com
2. Do the following as root:

   # tar -xzvf john-1.7.6.tar.gz (to extract)

   # cd john-1.7.6/src/

   # make (to see the platforms and select our platform)

   # make linux-x86-64

   # cd ../run/

3. Now John is ready to run

   #./john -users:binoy /etc/shadow (we can give multiple users separated by comma)

   we can see the password on screen. Also, password will be stored in john.pot

   # cat john.pot (to see the password)

   # ./john -show -users:binoy /etc/shadow (it will show full details of that account in /etc/shadow file as below)

   binoy:abc123:15003:0:99999:7:::