Password Cracking Project #1 – From Privilege Escalation to Hashcat

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  • MyrinNew
    Senior Member
    • Feb 2024
    • 5168

    #1

    Password Cracking Project #1 – From Privilege Escalation to Hashcat

    🔹 Objective:

    Learn and apply the end-to-end process of password cracking on Metasploitable2.


    🔹 Steps Taken:

    ``


    1. Dump shadow and passwd files

    scp msfadmin@:/etc/passwd ./passwd

    scp msfadmin@:/etc/shadow ./shadow


    2. Combine them into a hash file

    unshadow passwd shadow > combined.txt


    3. Run Hashcat against the hashes

    hashcat -m 500 -a 0 combined.txt /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt

    ``

    🔹 Outcome:


    Extracted hashes successfully.


    Attempted cracking with Hashcat.


    Root password did not crack with the default wordlist.


    🔹 Lessons Learned:


    Password cracking requires strong wordlists and sometimes brute-force.


    The workflow matters more than the result.


    Defenders should always enforce strong passwords and modern hashing algorithms.


    💡 Next Steps:


    Experiment with custom wordlists.


    Try brute-force methods.


    Move to the next Red Teaming challenge (DVWA SQL injection).




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