Hydra password-cracking tool: How to download and use it for good

Ethical hackers, need help brute forcing passwords? Learn how to download and use the open source Hydra password-cracking tool with this step-by-step tutorial and companion video.

• Share this item with your network:

• Ed Moyle, SecurityCurve

Red teams and blue teams inevitably face situations where they need to brute force a password. In offensive scenarios, red teams compromise weak passwords to gain unauthorized access. In defensive scenarios, blue teams might need to find and flag weak user passwords to help their organization conduct an audit, uncover default passwords in use, scan for bad user passwords in automated password attacks as a control, or test detection capabilities and defenses during attack simulations.

Regardless of the scenario, knowing how to successfully conduct these attacks is a valuable skill for ethical hackers -- as is knowing how to use the popular brute-force tool Hydra.