An Introduction to Hashcat: Features, Usage, and Command Options

Hashcat claims to be the world’s fastest and most advanced password‑recovery tool, supporting more than 300 highly optimized hash algorithms and offering unique attack modes. It runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS and can leverage CPUs, GPUs, and other hardware accelerators, with built‑in support for distributed cracking.

World’s fastest password recovery engine

First and only kernel‑rule engine

Open‑source and free

Cross‑platform support (Linux, Windows, macOS) and multiple hardware types (CPU, GPU, APU, FPGA, etc.)

Distributed cracking capabilities

Interactive pause and resume

Session management and restoration

Read passwords from files or standard input

Hex‑salt and hex‑charset support

Automatic performance tuning

Built‑in benchmark suite

Integrated thermal monitoring

Support for over 350 hash algorithms

Project repository: https://github.com/hashcat/hashcat

Simple Usage

Hashcat is distributed as a compressed archive; download, extract, and run it directly.

https://hashcat.net/hashcat/

The basic command syntax is:

hashcat [options]... hash|hashfile|hccapxfile [dictionary|mask|directory]...

Example:

hashcat64.exe -m 1000 329153f560eb329c0e1deea55e88a1e9 pass.txt --force

Common command‑line options include:

-m, --hash-type      Specify hash type (e.g., -m 1000 for NTLM). Supports over 300 types.
-a, --attack-mode    Choose attack mode (0 = dictionary, 3 = mask, 6 = hybrid, etc.).
-V, --version        Show version information.
-o, --outfile        Write cracked passwords to a file.
-r, --rules-file     Apply a rule file during cracking.
--force              Ignore warnings and force execution.
--show               Display cracked passwords.
-D, --opencl-device-types  Select device type (1 = CPU, 2 = GPU, 3 = FPGA/DSP/Co‑Processor).