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Background
Password cracking is the process of recovering a password from stored data or a protected file. Security professionals use it to test how strong a password is and to show why weak passwords are risky. If a password is short or common, it can be found quickly, which proves the need for strong passwords.
Many files like PDF, ZIP, and Office documents can be locked with a password. When a file is locked, its password is stored in the form of a hash. A hash is a scrambled value that represents the password. To recover the password, we first take out this hash from the file, and then run it through a cracking tool that tries different words until it finds a match.
In this lab you will use two free online tools made by Networkwalks. First you will use the Hash Calculator to take the hash out of a locked PDF file. Then you will use the Password Cracker to find the real password from that hash. Both tools run in your web browser, so you do not need to install anything.
This lab helps you understand how password cracking works step by step and why strong passwords are important for protection.