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Hashcat Cheat Sheet

hashcat is the fastest password recovery tool supporting GPU acceleration. It supports hundreds of hash types and multiple attack modes for efficient cracking.

Basic Syntax

hashcat -m <hash_mode> -a <attack_mode> hashes.txt wordlist.txt

Common Hash Modes

  • 0 → MD5
  • 100 → SHA1
  • 1400 → SHA256
  • 1700 → SHA512
  • 1800 → SHA512crypt
  • 2500 → WPA/WPA2
  • 3200 → bcrypt

List all: 

hashcat -h | less

Attack Modes

  • 0 → Straight (dictionary)
  • 1 → Combination
  • 3 → Brute-force / Mask
  • 6 → Hybrid Wordlist + Mask
  • 7 → Hybrid Mask + Wordlist

Dictionary Attack

hashcat -m 2500 -a 0 handshake.hccapx rockyou.txt

Mask Attack

hashcat -m 0 -a 3 hashes.txt ?l?l?l?l?d?d

Mask charset: - ?l lowercase - ?u uppercase - ?d digits - ?s symbols

Hybrid Attack

hashcat -m 0 -a 6 hashes.txt wordlist.txt ?d?d

Rule-Based Attack

hashcat -m 0 -a 0 hashes.txt wordlist.txt -r rules/best64.rule

Show Cracked Passwords

hashcat -m 0 hashes.txt --show

Resume Cracking

hashcat --restore

Benchmark

hashcat -b

Performance Tuning

hashcat -O -w 3 --force
  • -O → optimized kernels
  • -w 3 → workload profile

Warning

--force may cause instability.

Typical Workflow (WPA)

hcxtools → capture PMKID
hashcat -m 22000 capture.22000 wordlist.txt

Common Issues

Token length exception

Wrong hash mode selected.

Exhausted

Keyspace fully tested.

  • crunch
  • aircrack-ng
  • john the ripper
  • hcxtools

Use Cases

  • Wi-Fi password cracking
  • Hash recovery
  • Credential auditing
  • Red team operations

Danger

Use Hashcat only for authorized security testing.