Since 71% of cybercriminals are able to breach a network within 10 hours, ethical hacking is more essential now than ever before. Penetration testing and related white-hat hacking techniques can save your business millions.
Knowing how to crack a password is the first step towards testing network security. Here, we're going to talk about the tools that you need for online safety. Read on to learn about these tools for pen testers and why you need to invest in a password database.
Spidering and Guessing
Spidering happens when the hacker gathers information about the person whose page they're looking to gain access to. They look into company directories, social media, and blog posts to find data about the user's interests and values. They then create a word list to help gather a password quickly.
A hacker might learn information such as the authorized agent's birthday, family member's names, interests, headquarters, and company mission. They can then use this data to inform password guesses.
Guessing isn't a popular or fruitful hacking technique when you don't have the right tools. However, it is fairly efficient if one has a comprehensive list of common passwords.
A Comprehensive Password List
Guessing becomes simpler when you can access a list of the most common passwords that people tend to use. Our experts have compiled over 23 billion words and put them into a comprehensive list with no character limits.
These make it easier to guess passwords and hack into accounts. If you're a white-hat hacker or a pen-tester, these password lists can make your job much easier and more effective.
Guessing isn't the only reason to access a password list- you also can run them through password cracking tools. Popular options include John the Ripper, Cain and Abel, Ophcrack, Hashcat, and Wireshark.
You can paste the passwords into these tools and figure out which one will let you breach any given network. This lets you hack into a system within minutes- no manual guesswork needed.
Phishing Tools and Malware Installers
Phishing is the most popular method of penetrating a network. A fraudulent but official-looking email is sent to users. This email installs malware and password-extracting software onto the machine and the network.
Password-stealing hackers commonly use two types of malware tools. Keyloggers send all keystrokes to hackers while screen scraper uploads these keystrokes as screenshots. It's important that ethical hackers invest in similar tools to understand how user activity is recorded (and how this issue can be stopped).
More on How to Crack a Password the Right Way
While figuring out another user's password can be tricky, it's completely possible with the right tools. Now that you know how to crack a password, it's time to get some tools for white-hat hacking and pen-testing.
We're committed to helping you strengthen your business security with the top tools for pen testers. Contact us with any remaining questions that you have about passwords, hacking, and more.