Using BITMAIN AntMiner L3+ for cracking password

Question

I want to use a BITMAIN AntMiner L3+ miner to crack passwords. How can I do that?

Can I install hashcat agent to L3+ ?

Answer 1

You cannot crack passwords using a cryptocurrency ASIC. These ASICs are extremely limited in what they can do. This is especially true for your miner, which is designed for Litecoin, a cryptocurrency that uses scrypt, which is not commonly used for hashing passwords (though it is useful for doing so).

A cryptocurrency mining ASIC is not simply hash-acceleration hardware, where your computer prepares the data to be hashed and the device returns the digest. What actually happens is that the device does everything by itself, preparing the data to be hashed and verifying the block's integrity. Think of it like a car. While a car has a reciprocating engine, you could not take a car and turn it into a propeller airplane, despite both using the same type of engine. You would need to strip it and remove each component, throwing away a lot of what makes the car a car. The same is true for a mining ASIC, except that the components are so small and tightly integrated that it cannot be disassembled and re-purposed.