A Python tool that simulates hash cracking using MD5/SHA256 dictionary attacks. Ideal for SOC training and ransomware recovery demos.
This project simulates a dictionary attack on password hashes using MD5 or SHA-256. It's designed to demonstrate common attacker techniques — vital for SOC Analysts to understand.
Small organizations — like community hospitals, local schools, and small clinics — are often targets of ransomware due to their lack of advanced tooling or dedicated security teams.
This tool simulates how hashes could be reversed using dictionary attacks — a fundamental part of understanding how attackers (or defenders in a recovery scenario) might attempt to:
- Recover lost credentials
- Rebuild access to encrypted systems
- Bypass ransomware's lockout mechanisms using password reuse detection
⚠️ This is for ethical, educational use only. Do not attempt unauthorized password cracking.
- Takes a hash, algorithm (md5/sha256), and wordlist as input
- Compares hashes of words in the list against the target hash
- Returns the matching word if found
- Automated testing with GitHub Actions CI
- Educational use only — ideal for security awareness training, workshops, and labs
- Built for small business IT, schools, and beginner infosec pros
- Python
- hashlib
- CLI-based argument parsing
python cracker.py <hash> <algorithm> <wordlist.txt>