Typical tools for password cracking (John the Ripper, ophtcrack, hashcat, etc) can do several types of attacks including: If you have many passwords and you only want to crack one or two then this method can yield quick results, especially if the password hashes are from places where strong passwords are not enforced. The reason you want to use dictionary attacks is that they are much faster than brute force attacks.
Many people base their password on dictionary words, and word lists are used to supply the material for dictionary attacks. So you are right in thinking that word lists are involved in password cracking, however it's not brute force.īrute force attacks try every combination of characters in order to find a password, while word lists are used in dictionary based attacks.
Kali linux is a distribution designed for penetration testing and computer forensics, both which involve password cracking.
