How to brute-force .hccapx file using hashcat (Brute-force attack) in openSUSE Linux [with screenshots]

Written by Administrator on Tuesday May 5, 2020

Once you have captured WPA handshake and you've got .cap file, you have to convert given .cap file to .hccapx file format in order to brute force it. There're a lot of approaches, how to successfully crack wi-fi passwords. You never know, what is the structure of a password a surely you won't have enough equipment to crack a long password. In my case I'm trying to brute-force a password supposing it's only 8 digits long, because I know exactly, that the owner of a modem is using a model, which has by default only 8-digits password.

Yes, there's a possibility, that he configured his wi-fi modem manually and changed a password for more secure one, but there's also a chance he's just using it "as is". My computer will crack 8-digits long password in several minutes and I'm going to try to do it. In case I'm not successful, I will think about using dictionaries, because cracking even 8 character long password (digits, letters, capitals, special symbols) will take me years to crack.

Ok, let's go.

Hashcat is a tool capable to crach different types of hashed password. We need to crack .hccapx file. So, let's check manual:

$ hashcat --help

We will see all parameters we can apply to make hashcat do our work.

Ok, using -m parameter will give us an ability to use our hash-type! Now, let's find, what's the reference for WPA2:

Found! We need 2500 for WPA2 password!

Then we need another parameter: -a3 because we are using brute-force attack. You can find it in the same file as well:

and argument 3 for "brute-force":

Now we can start brute-force attack on our .hccapx file

$ sudo ./hashcat -m 2500 -a3 /home/dima/hs/huawei_8aa2.hccapx ?d?d?d?d?d?d?d?d

you see that we are using a mask "?d?d?d?d?d?d?d?d" for 8-digits password. In case you want to find a password with letters or a password with a different length, you can do it as well (see manual on hashcat's website).

Then we just have to wait until correct password is found. There're some screenshots from the process:

(we are at 0.49%).

(now we are at 16.38%)

And finally:

Password was found!

Conclusion

Hashcat can be useful for cracking wi-fi passwords (.cap / .hccapx files), but you should keep in mind, that password structure and length plays important role in choosing your cracking strategy. In my case I knew that password contained only digits, that's why my laptop was good enough to crack the password in several minutes. In case your victim's wi-fi router has more complex password, it will force you to use dictionaries to crack the password, or just forget about cracking it at all :)