Distributed password cracking

Abstract

Password cracking requires significant processing power, which in today's world is located at a workstation or home in the form of a desktop computer. Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) is the conduit to this significant source of processing power and John the Ripper is the key. BOINC is a distributed data processing system that incorporates client-server relationships to generically process data. The BOINC structure supports any system that requires large amounts of data to be processed without changing significant portions of the structure. John the Ripper is a password cracking program that takes a password file and attempts to determine the password by a guess and check method. The merger of these two programs enables companies and diverse groups to verify the strength of their password security policy. This thesis goes into detail on the inner workings of BOINC, John the Ripper, and the merger of the two programs. It also details the work required to test the system to its full capability.