John The Ripper Error: No password hashes loaded when cracking a zip file in kali linux

Question

I was practicing bruteforce attacks using John The Ripper. I want to crack a zip file. I obtained the hash and stored it in a zip file but when I attempt to crack the zip file it is giving me an error saying No password hashes loaded

This is the hash inside my passwordFile

Traffic.zip:$pkzip2$2*2*1*0*8*24*9fd8*23cd*ef2dcc3d08252e794fb90a80cf425f5ed83f04235bb66e8b75a8050817505569c3b30ae3*2*0*f5*1804*456ba01d*42*4b*8*f5*456b*23dc*ec2337b7340f21407a143d82f96fa0369aa6691a48126cbe945aab87e6e233f892999da88975e6a1c50c5fc1c6f58ac9075a5ebe45bb92e5fdf160845a6bfa9bfd0cabd515e83dae1a550dc71992459813bf8c96d31db4a4f5cf989d89ce04d75b71ed81d95315135fa6d0b73cef3b48ff0fefb67545f3fa319f9e2f7b5d325d4151c290c89f01a2a9d5398b23851e493971027d70dfdeeb94e307adccb7ebfbc05d0cc304f121ade8c349f6dd42977cdd8992729a4ad6395f18d9de4be424624510366c7d859302277f2a180159f920ce8310261883d85a2964ff77a72e50c12ff64c3ead48177ff470dc14bb176d77ecaeaeadbe*$/pkzip2$::Traffic.zip:Traffic/.DS_Store, Traffic/traffic.doc:Traffic.zip

@kelalaka if you mean the output in the image then unfortunately, since I'm a newbie I didn't understood much of it — Noamaan Mulla, Jan 23 '21 at 14:47
What are the contents of passwordFile.txt? As text, not as an image. — gowenfawr, Jan 23 '21 at 15:36
@gowenfawr Oh sorry, It seems I misinterpreted. Anyways, I've added the content of the passwordFile which was the hash I received from John — Noamaan Mulla, Jan 23 '21 at 16:20

gowenfawr · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-26T14:03:30.897

2

You need to update to the latest John the Ripper. I experienced the same error as you with john 1.8.0 but when I downloaded the latest bleeding edge release from Github (1.9.0-jumbo-1+bleeding-d29f456a4 2021-01-20) I was able to crack the same file:

$ ./john passwordFile.txt
Using default input encoding: UTF-8
Loaded 1 password hash (PKZIP [32/64])
Warning: OpenMP is disabled; a non-OpenMP build may be faster
Proceeding with single, rules:Single
Press 'q' or Ctrl-C to abort, almost any other key for status
Almost done: Processing the remaining buffered candidate passwords, if any.
Proceeding with wordlist:./password.lst
techno           (Traffic.zip)
1g 0:00:00:00 DONE 2/3 (2021-01-23 16:44) 20.00g/s 1298Kp/s 1298Kc/s 1298KC/s frodo..barbara
Use the "--show" option to display all of the cracked passwords reliably
Session completed.
$

This is not uncommon. "Run the latest bleeding edge" is a standard prescription for fixing issues with John the Ripper. I followed the instructions in john/doc/INSTALL-UBUNTU which explicitly tell how to grab the bleeding distribution; they're probably a good starting point for Kali (although the names of some prerequisite packages may differ).

edited Jan 26 '21 at 14:03

answered Jan 23 '21 at 16:47

gowenfawr

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I checked the version but it's already up to date which is 1.9.0 – Noamaan Mulla Jan 24 '21 at 08:56
1.9.0-Jumbo-1 that comes with Kali 2020.3 is able to crack it. What version of Kali are you running (`grep VERSION /etc/lsb-release`), and what version does `dpkg -l john` think you're running? – gowenfawr Jan 24 '21 at 17:52
So I completely re-installed my kali and upgraded to 2020.4 and it works fine now – Noamaan Mulla Jan 26 '21 at 11:51
Also, If hashes are one way then how was john able to crack it? – Noamaan Mulla Jan 26 '21 at 11:53
@NoamaanMulla "crack" equals "brute force by hashing a number of plaintext passwords until you match the hash". Cracking is a one-way operation. It's _reversing_ the hashes that can't be done. – gowenfawr Jan 26 '21 at 14:01

John The Ripper Error: No password hashes loaded when cracking a zip file in kali linux

1 Answers1