The compromise of passwords is always a serious threat to the confidentiality and integrity of data. Generally, the passwords shorter than 7 characters are especially susceptible to bruteforce attack. However, a sequence of mistyped commands or incorrect login responses (with attempts to recover or reuse them) can be a signs of brute-force intrusion attempts.
A brute force attack is a popular cracking method that involves guessing usernames and passwords to gain unauthorized access to a system or sensitive data.While a relatively simple, brute force methods continue to have a high success rate and account for over 80% of attacks on web applications. Download brute force attacker 64 bit for free. Security tools downloads - BN+ Brute Force Hash Attacker by De Dauw Jeroen and many more programs are available for instant and free download. Dirsearch brute force tool. Dirsearch is powerful and highly advanced brute-force attack tool that works on command line as well. Its also known as a web path scanner and used for testing against web server files and directories. It runs on Windows, Linux and macOS making it the most OS compatible tool in the list and it is built.
- What is the best software (most guesses per second based on my beefy computer hardware) that I can run to break this password? I would appreciate it if the software also tries all common passwords and their combinations (that fit 8 characters), pretty much a dictionary attack, prior to actually trying all possible combinations.
- Many Windows Server machines are under constant attack. Network scanners and RDP brute-force tools work 24/7. Eventually they may find a password to access your server! Moreover, RDP brute-force attacks abuse server resources (CPU, RAM, Disk Space and Network Bandwidth). Take a look at your server's Security EventLog.
Brute force attack is a process of guessing a password through various techniques. Commonly, brute force attacks are divided into three categories:
a) Traditional Brute Force
In a traditional brute force attack, you will try all the possible combinations to guess the correct password. This process is very usually time consuming; if the password is long, it will take years to brute-force. But if the password is short, it can give quick results.
b) Dictionary Attacks
In a dictionary-based brute force attack, we use a custom wordlist, which contains a list of all possible username and password combinations. It is much faster than traditional brute force attacks and is the recommended approach for penetration tests.
c) Hybrid Attacks
Hybrid brute force attacks are a combination of both traditional brute force attack and dictionary based attack. The idea behind a hybrid attack is that it will apply a brute force attack on the dictionary list.
Using bruteforce attacks, an attacker could gain full access to the affected machine. When conducting brute force attacks or password attacks, faster processing speed is beneficial. In cases where remote brute force attacks are conducted, bandwidth constraints must be addressed.
1. THC Hydra
THC hydra is one of the oldest password cracking tools developed by “The Hackers Community“. By far, Hydra has the most protocol coverage than any other password cracking tool as per our knowledge, and it is available for almost all the modern operating systems. THC Hydra can perform rapid dictionary attacks against many protocols such as Telnet, FTP, HTTP, SMB etc.
Here is the basic syntax for hydra (Linux version) to brute-force a service.
Syntax: Hydra –L administrator –P password.txt <target ip > <service>
- Official Website –https://sectools.org/tool/hydra/
- Github Link –https://github.com/vanhauser-thc/thc-hydra
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v8.9
- Available for – Windows/Linux/Mac OS X/
2. Aircrack-Ng
Aircrack-ng is another most popular brute force wireless hacking tool which is further used to assess WiFi network security. Generally it focuses on different 4 areas of WiFi security i.e. Monitoring, Attacking, Testing and Cracking.
Aircrack-ng is a set of tools widely used to crack/recover WEP/WPA/ WPA2-PSK. It supports various attacks such as PTW, which can be used to decrypt WEP key with a less number of initialization vectors, and dictionary/brute force attacks, which can be used against WPA/WPA2-PSK. It includes a wide variety of tools such as packet sniffer and packet injector. The most common ones are airodump-ng, aireply-ng, and airmon-ng.
- Official Website –http://www.aircrack-ng.org/
- Github Link –https://github.com/aircrack-ng/aircrack-ng
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v1.5.2
- Available for – Linux/BSD/OS X/Windows
3. Ncrack
Ncrack is one of our favorite tool for password cracking. It is based upon nmap libraries. It comes pre-installed with Kali Linux OS. It can be combined with nmap to yield great results. The only disadvantage is that it supports very few services, namely, FTP, SSH, Telnet, FTP, POP3, SMB, RDP, and VNC.
- Official Website –https://nmap.org/ncrack/
- Github Link –https://github.com/nmap/ncrack
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v0.6
- Available for – Windows/Linux/BSD/Mac OS X
4. SAMInside
SAMInside is a security tool compatible with only Windows operating systems and allows lost passwords and locked systems to be unlocked and accessed with a complex, but easy to use system of password recovery.
- Official Website –https://www.insidepro.team/
- Github Link – N.A.
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v2.7.0.1
- Available for – Windows
5. Hashcat
Hashcat is the world’s fastest and most advanced password recovery utility, supporting 5 unique modes of attack for over 200 highly-optimized hashing algorithms. hashcat currently supports CPUs, GPUs, and other hardware accelerators on Linux, Windows, and macOS, and has facilities to help enable distributed password cracking.
- Official Website –https://hashcat.net/hashcat/
- Github Link –https://github.com/hashcat/hashcat
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v5.1.0
- Available for – Linux/Windows/Mac OS
6. Ophcrack
Ophcrack is a Windows-based tool that has the capability to not only dump the hashes, but also crack those hashes using rainbow tables. The ophcrack program comes with rainbow tables that work for passwords of a very short length. So if the password is lengthy, or, say, alphanumeric, you won’t be able to crack it.
- Official Website –http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/
- Github Link –https://github.com/luisgg/ophcrack
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v3.8.0
- Available for – Windows/Linux
7. Cain & Able
Cain and Abel (often abbreviated to Cain) is a password recovery tool for Microsoft Windows only. It can recover many kinds of passwords using methods such as network packet sniffing, cracking various password hashes by using methods such as dictionary attacks, brute force and cryptanalysis attacks.
- Official Website –http://www.oxid.it/cain.html
- Github Link –https://github.com/xchwarze/Cain
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v4.9.56
- Available for – Windows
8. Rainbow Crack
Rainbow crack can not only be used to crack password hashes by using rainbow tables, but it can also help you create your own rainbow tables in case you don’t want to download them; but remember that if you are generating a large rainbow table, you should make sure that you have ample hard drive space.
- Official Website –http://project-rainbowcrack.com/
- Github Link –https://github.com/adamalawrence/rainbow
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v1.7
- Available for – Windows/Linux
9. John the Ripper
John the Ripper (JTR) is an open source password cracker; it’s one of the fastest password crackers around and is pre-installed in Kali Linux OS. It can be used to perform both bruteforce attacks and dictionary-based attacks. It also comes with a pre-installed wordlists.
- Official Website –https://www.openwall.com/john/
- Github Link –https://github.com/magnumripper/JohnTheRipper
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v1.8.0
- Available for – Linux/Mac OS X/Windows/Android
10. L0phtcrack
L0phtCrack is a password auditing and recovery application originally produced by Mudge from L0pht Heavy Industries. It is used to test password strength and sometimes to recover lost Microsoft Windows passwords, by using dictionary, brute-force, hybrid attacks, and rainbow tables. It was one of the crackers’ tools of choice, although most use old versions because of its low price and high availability.
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- Official Website –http://www.l0phtcrack.com/
- Github Link –https://github.com/L0phtCrack
- Latest Version (As Per Dated:11 March 2019) – v7.1.1
- Available for – Windows
Important
The improved Microsoft 365 Defender portal is now available. This new experience brings Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, Microsoft 365 Defender, and more into the Microsoft 365 security center. Learn what's new.
Applies toMicrosoft Defender for Office 365 plan 2
If your organization has Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2, which includes Threat Investigation and Response capabilities, you can use Attack Simulator in the Security & Compliance Center to run realistic attack scenarios in your organization. These simulated attacks can help you identify and find vulnerable users before a real attack impacts your bottom line. Read this article to learn more.
Note
Attack Simulator as described in this article is now read-only and has been replaced by Attack simulation training in the Email & collaboration node in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal at https://security.microsoft.com. For more information, see Get started using Attack simulation training.
The ability to launch new simulations from this version of Attack Simulator has been disabled. However, you can still access reports until April 24, 2021.
What do you need to know before you begin?
To open the Security & Compliance Center, go to https://protection.office.com/. Attack simulator is available at Threat management > Attack simulator. To go directly to attack simulator, open https://protection.office.com/attacksimulator.
For more information about the availability of Attack Simulator across different Microsoft 365 subscriptions, see Microsoft Defender for Office 365 service description.
You need to be a member of the Organization Management or Security Administrator role groups. For more information about role groups in the Security & Compliance Center, see Permissions in the Security & Compliance Center.
Your account needs to be configured for multi-factor authentication (MFA) to create and manage campaigns in Attack Simulator. For instructions, see Set up multi-factor authentication.
Attack Simulator only works on cloud-based mailboxes.
Phishing campaigns will collect and process events for 30 days. Historical campaign data will be available for up to 90 days after you launch the campaign.
Attack simulation and training related data is stored with other customer data for Microsoft 365 services. For more information see Microsoft 365 data locations.
There are no corresponding PowerShell cmdlets for Attack Simulator.
Spear phishing campaigns
Phishing is a generic term for email attacks that try to steal sensitive information in messages that appear to be from legitimate or trusted senders. Spear phishing is a targeted phishing attack that uses focused and customized content that's specifically tailored to the targeted recipients (typically, after reconnaissance on the recipients by the attacker).
In Attack Simulator, two different types of spear phishing campaigns are available:
Spear phishing (credentials harvest): The attack tries to convince the recipients to click a URL in the message. If they click the link, they're asked to enter their credentials. If they do, they're taken to one of the following locations:
A default page that explains that this was a just a test, and gives tips for recognizing phishing messages.
A custom page (URL) that you specify.
Spear phishing (attachment): The attack tries to convince the recipients to open a .docx or .pdf attachment in the message. The attachment contains the same content from the default phishing link, but the first sentence starts with '<Display Name>, you are seeing this message as a recent email message you opened...'.
Note
Currently, spear phishing campaigns in Attack Simulator don't expire.
Create a spear phishing campaign
An important part of any spear phishing campaign is the look and feel of the email message that's sent to the targeted recipients. To create and configure the email message, you have these options:
Use a built-in email template: Two built-in templates are available: Prize Giveaway and Payroll Update. You can further customize some, all, or none of the email properties from the template when you create and launch the campaign.
Create a reusable email template: After you create and save the email template, you can use it again in future spear phishing campaigns. You can further customize some, all, or none of the email properties from the template when you create and launch the campaign.
Create the email message in the wizard: You can create the email message directly in the wizard as you create and launch the spear phishing campaign.
Step 1 (Optional): Create a custom email template
If you're going to use one of the built-in templates or create the email message directly in the wizard, you can skip this step.
In the Security & Compliance Center, go to Threat management > Attack simulator.
On the Simulate attacks page, in either the Spear Phishing (Credentials Harvest) or Spear Phishing (Attachment) sections, click Attack Details.
It doesn't matter where you create the template. The available options in the template are the same for both types of phishing attacks.
In the Attack details page that opens, in the Phishing Templates section, in the Create Templates area, click New Template.
The Configure Phishing Template wizard starts in a new flyout. In the Start step, enter a unique display name for the template, and then click Next.
In the Configure email details step, configure the following settings:
From (Name): The display name that's used for the message sender.
From (Email): The sender's email address.
Phishing Login Server URL: Click the drop down and select one of the available URLs from the list. This is the URL that users will be tempted to click. The choices are:
Note
A URL reputation service might identify one or more of these URLs as unsafe. Check the availability of the URL in your supported web browsers before you use the URL in a phishing campaign.
Custom Landing Page URL: Enter an optional landing page where users are taken if they click the phishing link and enter their credentials. This link replaces the default landing page. For example, if you have internal awareness training, you can specify that URL here.
Category: Currently, this setting isn't used (anything you enter is ignored).
Subject: The Subject field of the email message.
When you're finished, click Next.
In the Compose email step, create the message body of the email message. You can use the Email tab (a rich HTML editor) or the Source tab (raw HTML code).
The HTML formatting can be as simple or complex as you need it to be. You can insert images and text to enhance the believability of the message in the recipient's email client.
${username}inserts the recipient's name.${loginserverurl}inserts the Phishing Login Server URL value from the previous step.
When you're finished, click Next.
In the Confirm step, click Finish.
Step 2: Create and launch the spear phishing campaign
In the Security & Compliance Center, go to Threat management > Attack simulator.
On the Simulate attacks page, make one of the following selections based on the type of campaign you want to create:
In the Spear Phishing (Credentials Harvest) section, click Launch Attack or click Attack Details > Launch Attack.
In the Spear Phishing (Attachment) section, click Launch Attack or click Attack Details > Launch Attack.
The Configure Phishing Attack wizard starts in a new flyout. In the Start step, do one of the following steps:
In the Name box, enter a unique display name for the campaign. Don't click Use Template, because you'll create the email message later in the wizard.
Click Use Template and select a built-in or custom email template. After you select the template, the Name box is automatically filled based on the template, but you can change the name.
When you're finished, click Next.
In the Target recipients step, do one of the following steps:
Click Address Book to select the recipients (users or groups) for the campaign. Each targeted recipient must have an Exchange Online mailbox. If you click Filter and Apply without entering a search criteria, all recipients are returned and added to the campaign.
Click Import then File Import to import a comma-separated value (CSV) or line-separated file of email addresses. Each line must contain the recipient's email address.
When you're finished, click Next.
In the Configure email details step, configure the following settings:
If you selected a template in the Start step, most of these values are already configured, but you can change them.
From (Name): The display name that's used for the message sender.
From (Email): The sender's email address. You can enter a real or fake email address from your organization's email domain, or you can enter a real or fake external email address. A valid sender email address from your organization will actually resolve in the recipient's email client.
Phishing Login Server URL: Click the drop down and select one of the available URLs from the list. This is the URL that users will be tempted to click. The choices are:
Note
All of the URLs are intentionally http, not https.
A URL reputation service might identify one or more of these URLs as unsafe. Check the availability of the URL in your supported web browsers before you use the URL in a phishing campaign.
You are required to select a URL. For Spear Phishing (Attachment) campaigns, you can remove the link from the body of the message in the next step (otherwise, the message will contain both a link and an attachment).
Attachment Type: This setting is only available in Spear Phishing (Attachment) campaigns. Click the drop down and select .DOCX or .PDF from the list.
Attachment Name: This setting is only available in Spear Phishing (Attachment) campaigns. Enter a filename for the .docx or .pdf attachment.
Custom Landing Page URL: Enter an optional landing page where users are taken if they click the phishing link and enter their credentials. This link replaces the default landing page. For example, if you have internal awareness training, you can specify that URL here.
Subject: The Subject field of the email message.
When you're finished, click Next.
In the Compose email step, create the message body of the email message. If you selected a template in the Start step, the message body is already configured, but you can customize it. You can use the Email tab (a rich HTML editor) or the Source tab (raw HTML code).
The HTML formatting can be as simple or complex as you need it to be. You can insert images and text to enhance the believability of the message in the recipient's email client.
${username}inserts the recipient's name.${loginserverurl}inserts the Phishing Login Server URL value.
For Spear Phishing (Attachment) campaigns, you should remove the link from the body of the message (otherwise, the message will contain both a link and an attachment, and link clicks aren't tracked in an attachment campaign).
When you're finished, click Next.
In the Confirm step, click Finish to launch the campaign. The phishing message is delivered to the targeted recipients.
Password attack campaigns
A password attack tries to guess passwords for user accounts in an organization, typically after the attacker has identified one or more valid user accounts.
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In Attack Simulator, two different types of password attack campaigns are available for you to test the complexity of your users' passwords:
Brute force password (dictionary attack): A brute force or dictionary attack uses a large dictionary file of passwords on a user account with the hope that one of them will work (many passwords against one account). Incorrect password lock-outs help deter brute force password attacks.
For the dictionary attack, you can specify one or many passwords to try (manually entered or in an uploaded file), and you can specify one or many users.
Password spray attack: A password spray attack uses the same carefully considered password against a list of user accounts (one password against many accounts). Password spray attacks are harder to detect than brute force password attacks (the probability of success increases when an attacker tries one password across dozens or hundreds of accounts without the risk of tripping the user's incorrect password lock-out).
For the password spray attack, you can only specify one password to try, and you can specify one or many users.
Note
The password attacks in Attack Simulator pass username and password Basic auth requests to an endpoint, so they also work with other authentication methods (AD FS, password hash sync, pass-through, PingFederate, etc.). For users that have MFA enabled, even if the password attack tries their actual password, the attempt will always register as a failure (in other words, MFA users will never appear in the Successful attempts count of the campaign). This is the expected result. MFA is a primary method to help protect against password attacks.
Create and launch a password attack campaign
In the Security & Compliance Center, go to Threat management > Attack simulator.
On the Simulate attacks page, make one of the following selections based on the type of campaign you want to create:
In the Brute Force Password (Dictionary Attack) section, click Launch Attack or click Attack Details > Launch Attack.
in the Password spray attack section, click Launch Attack or click Attack Details > Launch Attack.
The Configure Password Attack wizard starts in a new flyout. In the Start step, enter a unique display name for the campaign, and then click Next.
In the Target users step, do one of the following steps:
Click Address Book to select the recipients (users or groups) for the campaign. Each targeted recipient must have an Exchange Online mailbox. If you click Filter and Apply without entering a search criteria, all recipients are returned and added to the campaign.
Click Import then File Import to import a comma-separated value (CSV) or line-separated file of email addresses. Each line must contain the recipient's email address.
When you're finished, click Next.
In the Choose attack settings step, choose what to do based on the campaign type:
Brute Force Password (Dictionary Attack): Do either of the following steps:
Enter passwords manually: In the Press enter to add a password box, type a password and then press ENTER. Repeat this step as many times as necessary.
Upload passwords from a dictionary file: Click Upload to import an existing text file that contains one password on each line and a blank last line. The text file must be 10 MB or less in size, and can't contain more than 30000 passwords.
Password spray attack: In The password(s) to use in the attack box, enter one password.
When you're finished, click Next.
In the Confirm step, click Finish to launch the campaign. The passwords you specified are tried on users you specified.
View campaign results
After you launch a campaign, you can check the progress and results on the main Simulate attacks page.
Active campaigns will show a status bar, a completed percentage value and '(completed users) of (total users)' count. Clicking the Refresh button will update the progress of any active campaigns. You can also click Terminate to stop an active campaign.
When the campaign is finished, the status changes to Attack completed. You can view the results of the campaign by doing either of the following actions:
On the main Simulate attacks page, click View Report under the name of the campaign.
On the main Simulate attacks page, click Attack Details in the section for the type of attack. On the Attack details page that opens, select the campaign in the Attack History section.
Either of the previous actions will take you to a page named Attack details. The information that's available on this page for each type of campaign is described in the following sections.
Spear Phishing (Credentials Harvest) campaign results
The following information is available on the Attack details page for each campaign:
The duration (start date/time and end date/time) of the campaign.
Total users targeted
Successful attempts: The number of users who clicked the link and entered their credentials (any username and password value).
Overall Success Rate: A percentage that's calculated by Successful attempts / Total users targeted.
Fastest Click: How long it took the first user to click the link after you launched the campaign.
Average Click: The sum of how long it took everyone to click the link divided by the number of users who clicked the link.
Click Success Rate: A percentage that's calculated by (number of users who clicked the link) / Total users targeted.
Fastest Credentials: How long it took the first user to enter their credentials after you launched the campaign.
Average Credentials: The sum of how long it took everyone to enter their credentials divided by the number of users who entered their credentials.
Credential Success Rate: A percentage that's calculated by (number of users who entered their credentials) / Total users targeted.
A bar graph that shows the Link clicked and Credential supplied numbers per day.
A circle graph that shows the Link clicked, Credential supplied, and None percentages for the campaign.
The Compromised Users section lists the details of the users who clicked the link:
The user's email address
The date/time when they clicked the link.
The client IP address.
Details about the user's version of Windows and web browser.
You can click Export to export the results to a CSV file.
Spear Phishing (Attachment) campaign results
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The following information is available on the Attack details page for each campaign:
The duration (start date/time and end date/time) of the campaign.
Total users targeted
Successful attempts: The number of users who opened or downloaded and opened the attachment (preview doesn't count).
Overall Success Rate: A percentage that's calculated by Successful attempts / Total users targeted.
Fastest attachment open time: How long it took the first user to open the attachment after you launched the campaign.
Average attachment open time: The sum of how long it took everyone to open the attachment divided by the number of users who opened the attachment.
Attachment open success rate: A percentage that's calculated by (number of users who opened the attachment) / Total users targeted.
Brute Force Password (Dictionary Attack) campaign results
The following information is available on the Attack details page for each campaign:
The duration (start date/time and end date/time) of the campaign.
Total users targeted
Successful attempts: The number of users who were found to be using one of the specified passwords.
Overall Success Rate: A percentage that's calculated by Successful attempts / Total users targeted.
The Compromised Users section lists the email addresses of the affected users. You can click Export to export the results to a CSV file.
Password spray attack campaign results
The following information is available on the Attack details page for each campaign:
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The duration (start date/time and end date/time) of the campaign.
Total users targeted
Successful attempts: The number of users who were found to be using the specified password.
Overall Success Rate: A percentage that's calculated by Successful attempts / Total users targeted.