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princeprocessor

v0.21 open-source

Standalone password candidate generator using the PRINCE algorithm - hashcat/princeprocessor

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Summary

princeprocessor is an open-source password candidate generator that implements the PRINCE algorithm, building chains of one or more words from a single input wordlist rather than combining two separate lists like a traditional combinator attack. It costs nothing to use and runs as a command-line tool, compiled from source or installed from prebuilt Linux, Windows and macOS binaries. It is aimed at password auditors and penetration testers who feed its output into cracking tools such as hashcat rather than at general system administrators. Its README frames it as a standalone counterpart to hashcat's combinator attack, generating candidate lists that hashcat or similar crackers then consume. First committed in 2015 and built up by 8 contributors across 7 tracked releases, the project has seen no commits in the past year, so treat it as stable but no longer actively maintained.

Standalone password candidate generator using the PRINCE algorithm - hashcat/princeprocessor

How princeprocessor helps

Which candidate passwords would a two-wordlist combinator attack never produce from my existing wordlist?

chains one to many words from the single input wordlist together in every ordering and split, so it covers concatenations a paired-wordlist combinator run would miss

How do I extend my cracking coverage without building a second wordlist?

takes only the one wordlist already on hand and reassembles its entries into multi-word chains of the target length, standing in for the second list a combinator attack would otherwise need

What candidate stream do I feed into hashcat for a chain-based attack?

writes chained word combinations to output as a standalone generator, meant to be piped straight into hashcat or a similar cracker rather than run on its own

Which combinations of short words add up to the guess length I'm targeting?

for a given output length, works out every way to split it across one or more words from the wordlist and emits each concatenation, from a single whole word down to four one-letter words strung together

all 4 features, with the evidence for each →

Languages

Not documented

Features

4 capabilities

Built from princeprocessor's releases, docs, README and our own runs. “Seen” marks the month we first spotted a release the vendor didn't date.

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All capabilities 4 capabilities
Hexadecimal password space and limit handling shipped Enables hexadecimal notation for the --skip and --limit flags, and removes hard-coded recompilation limits to allow processing larger password keyspaces without rebuilding. 3 releases · 2 other sources · first seen Jan 2015

release

  • Removes hard-coded IN_LEN recompilation requirement by untieing it from PW_* macros, allowing --pw-max > 16 without rebuild v0.19 · Jan 2015 · source · release history
  • Enables hexadecimal values for the --skip flag to specify passwords to skip during attack processing v0.19 · Jan 2015 · source · release history
  • Enables hexadecimal values for the --limit flag to restrict processing scope using hex notation v0.19 · Jan 2015 · source · release history

example

  • Process only the first hex-limited set of passwords without recompiling the tool for larger keyspaces. princeprocessor --input wordlist.txt --limit 0xff v0.19 · Jan 2015 · source
  • Skip a range of passwords identified by hex patterns to avoid processing known weak keys. princeprocessor --input wordlist.txt --skip 0xdeadbeef v0.19 · Jan 2015 · source
Wordlist-based password generation shipped Generates password candidates from wordlists using algorithms like PRINCE to build chains of combined words. 2 releases · 2 other sources · first seen Jan 2015

release

  • Add support for passing a wordlist file path via the --fileparameter argument v0.21 · Feb 2015 · source · release history
  • Adds --case-permute amplifier option (default disabled) to the CLI v0.20 · Jan 2015 · source · release history

docs

  • Password candidate generator using the PRINCE algorithm that builds chains of combined words from a single wordlist.

example

  • Enable case permutation to increase the output volume of processed passwords. princeprocessor --case-permute input.txt > output.txt v0.20 · Jan 2015 · source
Configuration and resource validation shipped Validates configuration parameters to prevent invalid states and reports specific details for memory allocation failures during execution. 2 releases · first seen Jan 2015

release

  • Adds validation to ensure pw-max does not exceed elem-cnt-max, preventing invalid configuration states v0.19 · Jan 2015 · source · release history
  • Reports specific memory allocation failure details when the processor runs out of memory during execution v0.19 · Jan 2015 · source · release history
Duplicate suppression shipped Eliminates duplicate candidates from the output to prevent redundant processing. 1 release · first seen Jan 2015

release

Lines in monospace are the tool's own words: help text parsed from its source, or an endpoint from its API document. Under release, a line is our summary of a dated release. Under docs, it is quoted from the tool's own documentation or website. Each links back to the source it came from.

Score card

  1. Shipping velocity releases a month, last 12 months
  2. Documentation quality release-notes rubric, 0–100
  3. Breaking-change discipline how rarely a release breaks users, and notice given
  4. Maintenance risk quiet time against its own cadence, maintainers
  5. Innovation & surface new capabilities, API and MCP surface
  6. Community health
  7. Contributor trend distinct committers, this year against last
  8. Maintainer concentration bus factor now against a year ago
  9. Issue backlog trend issues closed per issue opened, 12 months
  10. Responsiveness median time to a maintainer’s first reply

Nine scores for princeprocessor, each built from the releases, notes and API history this site tracks — and, on Researcher and Business, where it stands among every measured tool in its category and how that has moved.

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Each score is 0–100 on a published rubric, derived from data this site already shows. A dimension we cannot measure says so — it is never scored 0 and never enters a rank.

How this is scored
  • Shipping velocity — releases a month over the last 12 months, on a log scale where 16 a month scores 100. Needs 3 releases in the window.
  • Documentation quality — the release-notes rubric published on the analytics page, unchanged.
  • Breaking-change discipline — the share of releases carrying a breaking change (none scores 100, half or more scores 0). Only projects that label breaking changes are measured: a clean record cannot be told from an unlabelled one.
  • Maintenance risk — quiet time measured against the tool's own release cadence (quiet longer than 90 days and three typical gaps scores 0), plus the number of active maintainers and whether contributors are growing, where known. Higher is lower risk.
  • Innovation & surface — new capabilities in the feature ledger this year, API and MCP operations added, and the share of commits that are features: the mean of whichever we hold.
  • Community health (open-source tools only) — each is a direction, not a size: contributors this year against last, the bus factor now against a year ago, and issues closed per issue opened, where steady scores 50, doubled 100 and halved 0; plus the median time to a maintainer's first reply (an hour scores about 100, a month or more 0). A commercial card has no repository and carries none of the four.
  • Documented delivery (commercial tools) — when a vendor's documented new capabilities have slowed against its own baseline, that counts against the overall standing as heavily as two low dimensions. Steady delivery, or too little history to judge, leaves the standing alone; it is never a sixth score.
  • Open-source tools are scored on repository signals; commercial tools on their published changelog. Ranks compare tools within one category and one profile and need at least five measured peers; the overall standing needs three ranked dimensions. Best-in-breed or consolidator is a shape, not a quality, and is never scored.

Release-note detail over time

See how much detail princeprocessor 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.

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Releases

3 entries

  1. February 20151
  3. January 20152

    3 entries

    1. v0.21 Feb 13, 2015 · release notes

      Adds --pw-min argument and allows wordlists via --fileparameter in princeprocessor v0.21.

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch v0.21 https://github.com/hashcat/princeprocessor.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout v0.21
      • Add support for passing a wordlist file path via the --fileparameter argument

      1 detail in Everything

    2. v0.20 Jan 26, 2015 · release notes

      princeprocessor v0.20 adds --case-permute amplifier option and dupe suppression

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch v0.20 https://github.com/hashcat/princeprocessor.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout v0.20
      └──▷ TRY IT
      Enable case permutation to increase the output volume of processed passwords.
      $ princeprocessor --case-permute input.txt > output.txt
      • Adds --case-permute amplifier option (default disabled) to the CLI
      • Adds dupe suppression capability
      • Removes dependency on GMPGMPGNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library, a free library for arbitrary-precision integers, rationals, and floats; cyber tools use it when cryptographic operations require big-number math beyond native integer limits. library by using uint128_t macros for fake-GMP header

      3 details in Everything

    3. v0.19 Jan 16, 2015 · release notes

      Adds --skip/--limit hex input, removes IN_LEN recompilation limit, adds validation check and OOMOOMAn out-of-memory condition: a program requests more memory than the system or device can provide. The allocation fails or the operating system may stop the process. reporting

      └──▷ GET THIS VERSION 
      $ git clone --branch v0.19 https://github.com/hashcat/princeprocessor.git
# already have the repo? check out this version:
$ git checkout v0.19
      └──▷ TRY IT
      Skip a range of passwords identified by hex patterns to avoid processing known weak keys.
      $ princeprocessor --input wordlist.txt --skip 0xdeadbeef
      Process only the first hex-limited set of passwords without recompiling the tool for larger keyspaces.
      $ princeprocessor --input wordlist.txt --limit 0xff
      • Enables hexadecimal values for the --skip flag to specify passwords to skip during attack processing
      • Enables hexadecimal values for the --limit flag to restrict processing scope using hex notation
      • Removes hard-coded IN_LEN recompilation requirement by untieing it from PW_* macros, allowing --pw-max > 16 without rebuild
      • Adds validation to ensure pw-max does not exceed elem-cnt-max, preventing invalid configuration states
      • Reports specific memory allocation failure details when the processor runs out of memory during execution

      5 details in Everything

    Project health

    Issue, contributor and maintainer activity in hashcat/princeprocessor, 2023-10 – 2026-09, as of 2026-09-25. Twelve-month figures first; the trend lines run the whole window.

    1. Contributors 0 ±0 vs prior 12 months
    2. Maintainers 0 +0 joined · −0 left, last 12 months
    3. Bus factor 0 committers behind half the commits
    4. Community-filed 100% of issues opened, last 12 months
    5. Median time to close < 1 day first maintainer reply 18 hours
    6. Open backlog 9 of 26 issues ever filed
    1. Issues opened / month 0 · 0 communitymaintainers
    2. Open backlog 9
    3. Contributors / month 0
    4. Commits / month 0
    5. Stars 504
    Issue themes, last 12 months
    • other 100%

    Counts from the project's public repository and git history; no individuals are identified. Maintainers are the committers covering 80% of the last year's commits. how we measure this

    Libraries its release ships

    What its latest release locks, checked against known advisories.

    None of its release's images build from a lockfile we can read.

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