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-
- John the Ripper's Command Line Options
- ========================================
-
- You can list any number of password files on John's command line, and also
- specify some of the following options (all of them are case sensitive, but
- can be abbreviated; you can also use the GNU-style long options syntax):
-
- -single "single crack" mode
- Enables the "single crack" mode, using rules from [List.Rules:Single].
-
- -wordfile:FILE wordlist mode, read words from FILE,
- -stdin or from stdin
- These are used to enable the wordlist mode.
-
- -rules enable rules for wordlist mode
- Enables wordlist rules, that are read from [List.Rules:Wordlist].
-
- -incremental[:MODE] incremental mode [using section MODE]
- Enables the incremental mode, using the specified ~/john.ini definition
- (section [Incremental:MODE], or [Incremental:All] by default).
-
- -external:MODE external mode or word filter
- Enables an external mode, using external functions defined in ~/john.ini's
- [List.External:MODE] section.
-
- -stdout[:LENGTH] no cracking, write words to stdout
- When used with a cracking mode, except for "single crack", makes John
- print the words it generates to stdout instead of cracking. While applying
- wordlist rules, the significant password length is assumed to be LENGTH,
- or unlimited by default.
-
- -restore[:FILE] restore an interrupted session
- Continues an interrupted cracking session, reading point information from
- the specified file (~/restore by default).
-
- -session:FILE set session file name to FILE
- Allows you to specify another point information file's name to use for
- this cracking session. This is useful for running multiple instances of
- John in parallel, or just to be able to recover an older session later,
- not always continue the latest one.
-
- -status[:FILE] print status of a session [from FILE]
- Prints status of an interrupted or running session. To get an up to date
- status information of a detached running session, send that copy of John
- a SIGHUP before using this option.
-
- -makechars:FILE make a charset, overwriting FILE
- Generates a charset file, based on character frequencies from ~/john.pot,
- for use with the incremental mode. The entire ~/john.pot will be used for
- the charset file unless you specify some password files. You can also use
- an external filter() routine with this option.
-
- -show show cracked passwords
- Shows the cracked passwords in a convenient form. You should also specify
- the password files. You can use this option while another John is cracking,
- to see what it did so far.
-
- -test perform a benchmark
- Benchmarks all the enabled ciphertext format crackers, and tests them for
- correct operation at the same time.
-
- -users:[-]LOGIN|UID[,..] load this (these) user(s) only
- Allows you to filter a few accounts for cracking, etc. A dash before the
- list can be used to invert the check (that is, load all the users that
- aren't listed).
-
- -groups:[-]GID[,..] load this (these) group(s) only
- Tells John to load users of the specified group(s) only.
-
- -shells:[-]SHELL[,..] load this (these) shell(s) only
- This option is useful to load accounts with a valid shell only, or not to
- load accounts with a bad shell. You can omit the path before a shell name,
- so '-shells:csh' will match both '/bin/csh' and '/usr/bin/csh', while
- '-shells:/bin/csh' will only match '/bin/csh'.
-
- -salts:[-]COUNT set a passwords per salt limit
- This feature sometimes allows to achieve better performance. For example
- you can crack only some salts using '-salts:2' faster, and then crack the
- rest using '-salts:-2'. Total cracking time will be about the same, but
- you will get some passwords cracked earlier.
-
- -format:NAME force ciphertext format NAME
- Allows you to override the ciphertext format detection. Currently, valid
- format names are DES, BSDI, MD5, BF, AFS, LM. You can use this option when
- cracking or with '-test'. Note that John can't crack password files with
- different ciphertext formats at the same time.
-
- -savemem:LEVEL enable memory saving, at LEVEL 1..3
- You might need this option if you don't have enough memory, or don't want
- John to affect other processes too much. Level 1 tells John not to waste
- memory on login names, so you won't see them while cracking. Higher levels
- have a performance impact: you should probably avoid using them unless John
- doesn't work or gets into swap otherwise.
-
- Additional Utilities
- ----------------------
-
- There're some utilities in John's run directory:
-
- unshadow PASSWORD-FILE SHADOW-FILE
- Combines the passwd and shadow files (when you already have access to
- both) for use with John. You might need this since if you only used your
- shadow file, the GECOS information wouldn't be used by the "single crack"
- mode, and also you wouldn't be able to use the '-shells' option. You'll
- usually want to redirect the output of 'unshadow' to a file.
-
- unafs DATABASE-FILE CELL-NAME
- Gets password hashes out of the binary AFS database, and produces a file
- usable by John (again, you should redirect the output yourself).
-
- unique OUTPUT-FILE
- Removes duplicates from a wordlist (read from stdin), without changing
- the order. You might want to use this with John's '-stdout' option, if
- you got a lot of disk space to trade for the reduced cracking time.
-
- mailer PASSWORD-FILE
- A shell script to send mail to all the users who got weak passwords. You
- should edit the message inside before using.
-