Editing Password cracking (section)

==Software==
{{Main category|Password cracking software}}

There are many password cracking software tools, but the most popular<ref name="sectools-top-10">{{cite web |url=https://sectools.org/tag/pass-audit/ |access-date=November 1, 2009 |title=Top 10 Password Crackers |publisher=Sectools}}</ref> are [[Aircrack-ng]], [[Cain and Abel (software)|Cain & Abel]], [[John the Ripper]], [[Hashcat]], [[Hydra (software)|Hydra]], [[DaveGrohl]], and [[ElcomSoft]]. Many [[computer forensics|litigation support software]] packages also include password cracking functionality. Most of these packages employ a mixture of cracking strategies; algorithms with brute-force and dictionary attacks proving to be the most productive.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 28, 2016 |title=Stay Secure: See How Password Crackers Work - Keeper Blog |url=https://www.keepersecurity.com/blog/2016/09/28/how-password-crackers-work/ |access-date=November 7, 2020 |website=Keeper Security Blog - Cybersecurity News & Product Updates |language=en-US}}</ref>

The increased availability of computing power and beginner friendly automated password cracking software for a number of protection schemes has allowed the activity to be taken up by [[script kiddie]]s.<ref name=Anderson1>{{cite news |last=Anderson |first=Nate |title=How I became a password cracker: Cracking passwords is officially a "script kiddie" activity now. |url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/how-i-became-a-password-cracker/ |access-date=March 24, 2013 |newspaper=[[Ars Technica]] |date=March 24, 2013}}</ref>