hashcat Forum

I've read through the docs several times and they are a bit limited on examples.  I have a couple of words the password might contain and I would like to run through those possible combinations first before an all out brute force attack.  I am trying to run in incremental mode.

I am only getting a very limited keyspace from my mask file.  Obviously something is off.  Please help.

?a?a?a?a?acheeseburger?a?a?a?a?a?a
?a?a?a?a?abattleship?a?a?a?a?a?a
?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a

I have tried adding commas and other things but no dice.  All of the examples have partial words at the beginning, not the middle, so I do not know how that affects it.  I would also like to run through combinations will no, 1, 2, 3, and 4 characters at the beginning and end and combinations thereof.

Thank you for any help.

can you post the whole screen text you see?

Are you stopping the job before it finishes? You will get separate keyspaces for each mask (including each transformation of the incremental mode), so you will probably get a ton of small keyspaces before hitting some larger ones.

While running the mask shows up like this:

Mask (?a?a?a?a?a[l) [7]

For this entry:

?a?a?a?a?a[lL]oveisfine?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a

I just wanted to run through permutations of "loveisfine" with an upper and lower case "L".  Am I going about it wring?

Also, if I have two entries like this, and I am going through iterative mode:

?a?a?a?a?a[lL]oveisfine?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a
?a?a?a?a?a[fF]reakyfriday?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a

Will it go through ?a, ?a?a, ?a?a?a, etc for each line in the file?  Is there a command/setting to avoid that, going through combinations already tried?

And last question:  My rejected looks like this, is it normal?

Rejected.......: 0/720896 (0.00%)


Thank you.

Your mask syntax is incorrect. You should re-read the wiki page on Mask Attacks, particularly the section on custom charsets.

I have read the wiki page several times. It does not give an example on how to create a .hcmask file that does what I want. None of the example mask files do either.

I tried using a custom character set on the command line to see if I could get it to work. I would rather get a file working becuase I have several words I want to try rather than one at a time. Here is what I have:

C:\cuda>cudahashcat64 -m 11600 output.txt -a 3 mine.hcmask -p --username -w 2 -o
solution.txt --outfile-format=15 --status --status-timer=20 -i --increment --in
crement-min=6 --increment-max=18 --session=gotitnowbaby -u --gpu-temp-retain=65
--gpu-loops=512 -n 160 -1 lL=?a?a?a?a?a?a?1ockoff?a?a?a?a?a?a

THis is based upon an example I found in the forum.

I still get the [ bracket showing up on the current mask:

Input.Mode.....: Mask (?a?a?a?a?a[) [6] (0.00%)

I don't mind reading and trying to figure it out, I am just hoping someone can provide a clear example of what I am trying to do. I have spent several hours reading through the forums and googling without luck.

First off, your command line is an utter train wreck. It's obvious you do not know what any of those flags do, you're just copy/pasting things without reading, learning, or understanding.

You specify -p without a value, though I suspect it's using the first character of "--username" as the value, making the --username switch do nothing (which is fine, you shouldn't be using it anyway.) You specify -u without a value, making --gpu-temp-retain do nothing, and then specify --gpu-loops=512, which is not only a nonsensical value, but -u and --gpu-loops are the same parameter. You also specify -n 160, which is a nonsensical value for a slow hash. But then you also specify -w 2 which is an alias for -n/-u parameters, so this is not only redundant but does nothing since you manually specify -n/-u on top of it. You also specify both -i and --increment, which are the same flag.

So yes, it is very clear to me that you are not reading.

The bracket is showing up in the mask for precisely the same reason why you do not see brackets being used on the Mask Attack wiki page -- it's not valid syntax. You need to define a custom charset.

The mask "?a?a?a?a?a[lL]oveisfine?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a" should be written as "-1 lL ?a?a?a?a?a?1oveisfine?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a" on the command line, or as "lL,?a?a?a?a?a?1oveisfine?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a" in an hcmask file. This is explained very plainly on the wiki:

https://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?id=mask...m_charsets
https://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?id=mask...mask_files

The second link gives you a very clear example of how to create an .hcmask file that does what you want.

Now pay attention, because I'm going to do this once and only once. After this, you're on your own.

Based on the two masks you've provided, your .hcmask file should contain the following two lines:


And then your command should be written as:


See how simple that command line is?

Your only problem now should be your impossible masks. This algorithm is way too slow for the masks you want to use; in fact, even if this were an MD4 hash, you'd still never complete this mask. The keyspace is outrageously huge.

Good luck.

>First off, your command line is an utter train wreck. It's obvious you do not know what any of those flags do, you're >just copy/pasting things without reading, learning, or understanding.

Actually, I am reading. I am going by the list of commands under the oclhashcat wiki page. Let's take for example the benchmark section on the page(which, by the way, has a whopping TWO simple examples of the command line on it):

-b, --benchmark Run benchmark
--benchmark-mode=NUM Benchmark-mode, see references below

When I read over this(more then once), what I interpreted this is was that the "-b" was the main "opening" command, with "sub" commands denoted with the double dash. So if I wanted to use the "--benchmark", I had to put the "b" first. Was that correct? Well I guess not. But there are very few command line examples provided with the down load so I had very little to go off of.

The command line I posted was from me going very carefully down the list of options and adding the ones that I felt best fit my purposes. I am new to this and did not know any better. Many of the google results for the forum are restricted even when logged in for some reason, and the ones that are viewable are sparse.

AS for the mask files, neither the wiki page nor the example files give clear examples of defining custom character sets within the file itself. There are no custom character sets in the example files. The wiki page gives this snipptet:

> The general format of 1 single line in the .hcmask file is as follows:

>[?1],[?2],[?3],[?4],[mask]

But never gives an example on how to actually define those character sets within the file(if you can do so) or explain that they have to be defined on the command line. A complete example of a custom character set and its use in a mask would be easy to add but is missing.

>The mask "?a?a?a?a?a[lL]oveisfine?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a" should be written as "-1 lL >?a?a?a?a?a?1oveisfine?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a" on the command line, or as "lL,?a?a?a?a?a?1oveisfine?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a" in >an hcmask file. This is explained very plainly on the wiki:

>or as "lL,?a?a?a?a?a?1oveisfine?a?a?a?a?a?a?a?a" in an hcmask file.

An example using a comma for a mask file is never given on the wiki. How would I know I can do that without asking?

I understand this is elitist, high-end tech. However, I have been a programmer for over twenty years and know my way around technology. I have devoted over 20 hours to this software over the last two days, pouring over the limited documentation, googling, and trying my best with what I can gather.

Perhaps the documentation is lacking and a friendly, helpful community is the only option?

Quote: I interpreted this is was that the "-b" was the main "opening" command, with "sub" commands denoted with the double dash.

generally, commands on the same line denote equivalent options -b is the same as specifying --benchmark. This is true for almost all cli applications out there.

Quote:A complete example of a custom character set and its use in a mask would be easy to add but is missing.

There is a specific example section for mask files… https://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?id=mas...k#example1

Quote:An example using a comma for a mask file is never given on the wiki. How would I know I can do that without asking?

[?1],[?2],[?3],[?4],[mask] -> apply common sense when reading

Quote:what I interpreted this is was that the "-b" was the main "opening" command, with "sub" commands denoted with the double dash

I am not sure your 20 years has helped you. You might want to start with this before getting into hashcat:
https://linuxcommand.org/