Penetration Testing mailing list archives
Re: Password secured using???
From: "Phil Frederick" <flosofl () gmail com>
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:43:01 -0500
On 4/24/06, Robert J. Kraus <rkraus () telcomtex net> wrote:
To me it does look like a hash of some sort. Now that you have the known password and the hash you can take that information and reverse engineer the hashed answer. I am curious to see how they hashed it and what algorithm they used. Once you have the hashing algorithm you can use that to unencrypt any passwords in the file.
Hashes are one way functions. You cannot work backward (or even reverse engineer - what would be the point?) from a hash and "decrypt" password. Even if the the hashing algorithm is MD5, SHA-0/SHA-1 (which have been shown to have collision weaknesses), finding a collision is unlikely. Reverse engineering is really not the answer (sort of). The most likely course would be to use a rainbow table or a dictionary attack. Use the known password and generate hashes using the different algorithms (MD5, SHA-0, SHA-1, TIGER, etc). When you find a match with the stored hash, you know the algorithm in use. Then all that is needed is start slamming a dictionary against the rest of the hashes, try some brute force variants. It gets a little more difficult if it turns out they are using a salt to XOR the password before the hash. Sometimes you can discover the salt by tracing the program execution in a debugger - but it's a real pain. I would also take images of the machine's memory. You would be surprised how many plaintext information floats around there. In my work I have found a few systems that use strong hashing/encryption algorithms vulnerable due to poor protocol implementation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This List Sponsored by: Cenzic Concerned about Web Application Security? Why not go with the #1 solution - Cenzic, the only one to win the Analyst's Choice Award from eWeek. As attacks through web applications continue to rise, you need to proactively protect your applications from hackers. Cenzic has the most comprehensive solutions to meet your application security penetration testing and vulnerability management needs. You have an option to go with a managed service (Cenzic ClickToSecure) or an enterprise software (Cenzic Hailstorm). Download FREE whitepaper on how a managed service can help you: http://www.cenzic.com/news_events/wpappsec.php And, now for a limited time we can do a FREE audit for you to confirm your results from other product. Contact us at request () cenzic com for details. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- Password secured using??? barcajax (Apr 24)
- Re: Password secured using??? Peter Kosinar (Apr 25)
- Re: Password secured using??? Gregory J. Knight (Apr 25)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Password secured using??? Robert J. Kraus (Apr 25)
- Re: Password secured using??? Phil Frederick (Apr 26)
- Re: Password secured using??? Art Cooper (Apr 26)
- Re: Password secured using??? Phil Frederick (Apr 26)