John the Ripper
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John the Ripper is an open-source password security auditing tool that detects weak passwords by performing dictionary, brute-force, and rainbow crack attacks.
Summary
John the Ripper is an open-source password-cracking tool that recovers plaintext passwords from captured hashes, run from the command line rather than through any GUIGUIA graphical user interface, controls such as windows, buttons and menus. It lets people use software visually rather than entering commands. or hosted service. It works through dictionary attacks against a wordlist, handles formats like NTLMNTLMA Windows authentication protocol that proves knowledge of a password through a challenge and response. Captured authentication exchanges can be abused in relay attacks when protections are absent., and can pull a crackable hash out of a password-protected ZIP file before running it through the same process; a separate command lets you review passwords already cracked in earlier sessions without repeating the work. It is aimed at penetration testers and security auditors checking password strength, and system administrators validating their own credential policies, rather than at end users. It sits in the hash-cracking and password-audit space alongside other offline crackers, used when a hash has already been obtained and needs testing against real-world guesses. With 20 releases in the window we track and the last one 37 days ago, it is under active maintenance.
John the Ripper is an open-source password security auditing tool that detects weak passwords by performing dictionary, brute-force, and rainbow crack attacks.
John the Ripper publishes no documentation we track, so the description above is written from general knowledge rather than the vendor's own words.
How John the Ripper helps
Which passwords on this system would fall to a simple dictionary guess?
runs each captured hash against a wordlist and reports any that match a plaintext entry, stopping there rather than trying variations beyond the list supplied
Are any of these Windows account hashes actually weak passwords in disguise?
runs the NTLM-formatted hashes through the same guessing process and reports which ones resolve to plaintext
Can I get into this password-protected archive without knowing the password?
pulls a crackable hash out of the ZIP's encryption header and feeds it into the normal cracking process, turning a locked file into a hash to test
Did last night's cracking run find anything, without me rerunning it?
reads back the results already recovered in earlier sessions so cracked passwords can be reviewed on demand instead of being solved twice
Which of our accounts are still using guessable passwords after last quarter's policy change?
matches current hashes against the wordlist to show which credentials remain crackable, giving a concrete list to hand to whoever owns the password policy
Languages
Command line
4 commands for John the Ripper, each with where it came from. This tool has no source analysis yet, so there is no option reference and no captured run beside them.
No command matches.
Release-note detail over time
See how much detail John the Ripper puts in its release notes, quarter by quarter, and compare it with tracked tools in the same category. This history uses up to ten retained, reviewed notes per tool; sparse or blank older quarters may reflect that limit.
Checking release-note history…
Releases
Nothing shipped since we started watching. Releases and docs updates land here as they happen.
Articles
2 articles · updated Nov 4, 2026Where John the Ripper turns up in what others publish: how-tos, attack reports that name it, and incident write-ups. A row says why it is here and quotes where the article names it; the link goes to the publisher.
Tutorials & guides 2
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Beginners Guide for John the Ripper (Part 2)
We learned most of the basic information on John the Ripper in our Previous Article which can be found here .
2 more quotes
In this article, we will use John the Ripper to crack the password hashes of some of the file formats like zip, rar, pdf and much more.
Cracking the SSH Password Hash John the Ripper can crack the SSH private key which is created in RSA Encryption.
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Beginners Guide for John the Ripper (Part 1)
We know the importance of John the ripper in penetration testing, as it is quite popular among password cracking tool.
2 more quotes
In this article, we are introducing John the ripper and its various usage for beginners.
What is John the Ripper?
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