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Linux Server Security - John the Ripper Password Cracking UtilityHow to Install John the Ripper Using Apt-getJohn the Ripper, often simply called john, is a very useful tool for discovering which of your users have weak passwords. John uses the same methodology to attempt to break the passwords held in your password file as would-be attackers would use. In fact John the Ripper is used by both sides of the fence, on one side to detect bad passwords so that they can be changed and on the other side it is used to break passwords on any password file they might be fortunate enough to come across.John the Ripper is easy to install, particularly if you use a distribution that uses apt-get for software installation or upgrade. You will need to install John the Ripper itself and a wordlist appropriate to your language. John uses the wordlist, usually a dictionary, to attempt to find passwords based on dictionary words. Installing John the Ripper on an distribution that uses apt is as easy as-
This will install John the Ripper system wide on your Linux server with two wordlists to choose from, one british and one american. Installing a password cracker system wide is perhaps not all that wise for many reasons. I prefer to copy the password file that I want to check for bad passwords onto a completely different Linux machine that I use for testing and other tasks such as this. To remove John the Ripper when you are finished simply type-
How to Install John the Ripper From SourceJohn the Ripper is easy to install from source and makes the step of installing the program system wide unnecessary as it can be run from the directory it was compiled in. The first step in installing John is to download the latest free version from openwall.com. I use wget for downloading the source directly onto my Linux server.
Once you have downloaded John onto your computer it must be uncompressed. Note that 1.7.3.4 is the version number and should be replaced by the version number of the copy you have downloaded. Use gzip and tar to unpack the source code and change into the src directory as shown below.
Once you are in the src directory type make as if you were going to compile the program. You will be given a series of choices and should select one that is appropriate for your system type.
Our Slackware Linux server will work well with the linux-x86-sse2 compile option so that is the one we have selected. If your unsure you can take the generic option but you may see a performance hit as a result.
Your installation of John the Ripper is now ready to use. You can copy the entire run directory to wherever you like and use john from there or simply run it from where it is by typing-
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