[techtalk] Using Crack 5.0

[Robert Kiesling]

Hi,

What Crack is doing is creating word dictionaries the first time you try
to run it.  That way, on later executions, it will not need to re-hash
all of the words or character combinations that it would have to 
create the first time, thus cutting down the time it takes to ``guess''
the passwords.  Even on a PII, as I understand, Crack can still take
weeks or months to decode a password using a brute-force method.

On Mon, 29 Nov 1999, you wrote:
> I have downloaded the latest Crack 5.0. When I run,
> 
> $ Crack /etc/passwd
> or
> $ Crack /etc/shawdow
> 
> I get lots of output, that seem to suggest, it is trying to do some "make".
> Here is the tail end of the output.
> 
> ===========================================
> make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/tools/c50a/src/util'
> Crack: The dictionaries seem up to date...
> Crack: Sorting out and merging feedback, please be patient...
> Crack: Merging password files...
> Crack: Creating gecos-derived dictionaries
> mkgecosd: making non-permuted words dictionary
> mkgecosd: making permuted words dictionary
> Crack: launching: cracker -kill run/Kstar.12202   
> Done
> ===========================================
> 
> The Crack does not try to crack my passwords. Am I invoking Crack with
> the wrong syntax? How can I test the password qualities of my users?
> 
> Thank you in advance.
> 
> Subba Rao
> subb3 at ibm.net
> http://pws.prserv.net/truemax/
> 
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