Compromise: user knows part of the password (e.g., “pass123” but not the last 2 digits). Masks reduce keyspace.
| Format | Encryption | KDF | Iterations (default) | Vulnerability | |--------|------------|-----|----------------------|----------------| | RAR3 (old) | AES-128 | PBKDF1-like | ~2048 | Some timing side-channels, but practically secure | | RAR5 | AES-256 | PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 | 262144 | No known break |
Exhaustively tries all combinations of a given character set. Impractical for passwords >8 characters when combined with PBKDF2 iterations.
Applies mutation rules (uppercasing, leetspeak, appending years) to a dictionary.
rar2john target.rar > hash.txt Step 2: Select attack mode in Hashcat RAR5 hash mode: 13000 RAR3 (non-AES): 12500 Example dictionary attack:
Step 1: Extract the hash Using rar2john (from John the Ripper suite):
The key derivation function (PBKDF2) intentionally slows down each password guess, forcing attackers to trade off time for attempts.