L0phtCrack
Encyclopedia
L0phtCrack is a password
audit
ing and recovery
application (now called L0phtCrack 6) 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.
The application was produced by @stake
after the L0pht
merged with @stake in 2000. @stake was then acquired by Symantec
in 2004. Symantec later stopped selling this tool to new customers, citing US Government export regulations, and discontinued support in December 2006.
In January 2009 L0phtCrack was acquired by the original authors Zatko, Wysopal, and Rioux from Symantec. L0phtCrack 6 was announced on 11 March 2009 at the SOURCE Boston Conference. L0phtCrack 6 contains support for 64-bit Windows platforms as well as upgraded rainbow tables support.
Password
A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource . The password should be kept secret from those not allowed access....
audit
Audit
The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. The term most commonly refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist in project management, quality management, and energy conservation.- Accounting...
ing and recovery
Password cracking
Password cracking is the process of recovering passwords from data that has been stored in or transmitted by a computer system. A common approach is to repeatedly try guesses for the password...
application (now called L0phtCrack 6) originally produced by Mudge from L0pht
L0pht
L0pht Heavy Industries was a hacker collective active between 1992 and 2000 and located in the Boston, Massachusetts area.-Name:The second character in its name was originally a slashed zero, a symbol used by old teletypewriters and some character mode operating systems to mean zero...
Heavy Industries. It is used to test password strength
Password strength
Password strength is a measure of the effectiveness of a password in resisting guessing and brute-force attacks. In its usual form, it estimates how many trials an attacker who does not have direct access to the password would need, on average, to guess it correctly...
and sometimes to recover lost Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
passwords, by using dictionary
Dictionary attack
In cryptanalysis and computer security, a dictionary attack is a technique for defeating a cipher or authentication mechanism by trying to determine its decryption key or passphrase by searching likely possibilities.-Technique:...
, brute-force
Brute force attack
In cryptography, a brute-force attack, or exhaustive key search, is a strategy that can, in theory, be used against any encrypted data. Such an attack might be utilized when it is not possible to take advantage of other weaknesses in an encryption system that would make the task easier...
, hybrid attacks, and rainbow tables. It was one of the crackers'
Black hat
A black hat is the villain or bad guy, especially in a western movie in which such a character would stereotypically wear a black hat in contrast to the hero's white hat, especially in black and white movies....
tools of choice, although most use old versions because of its low price and high availability.
The application was produced by @stake
@stake
ATstake, Inc. was a computer security professional services company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1999 by Battery Ventures and Ted Julian...
after the L0pht
L0pht
L0pht Heavy Industries was a hacker collective active between 1992 and 2000 and located in the Boston, Massachusetts area.-Name:The second character in its name was originally a slashed zero, a symbol used by old teletypewriters and some character mode operating systems to mean zero...
merged with @stake in 2000. @stake was then acquired by Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
in 2004. Symantec later stopped selling this tool to new customers, citing US Government export regulations, and discontinued support in December 2006.
In January 2009 L0phtCrack was acquired by the original authors Zatko, Wysopal, and Rioux from Symantec. L0phtCrack 6 was announced on 11 March 2009 at the SOURCE Boston Conference. L0phtCrack 6 contains support for 64-bit Windows platforms as well as upgraded rainbow tables support.