During a penetration test you have copied the /etc/shadow file from a Linux server. Based on user behavior, you believe their passwords are common English words with simple modifications such as capitalizing the first letter or appending a two-digit number. What John the Ripper option will test this pattern most efficiently before you attempt a full brute-force attack?
Invoke an external filter: john --external=Bypass shadow.txt
Use single-crack mode: john --single shadow.txt
Launch an incremental brute-force attack: john --incremental=All shadow.txt
Run john with a wordlist and built-in rules: john --wordlist=rockyou.txt --rules shadow.txt
John the Ripper's wordlist mode with rules mutates every word in the supplied dictionary according to the built-in rule set (for example, changing case or appending numbers). This directly targets passwords that start as dictionary words but have predictable alterations, making it far faster than the exhaustive incremental mode. Single-crack mode only works well when the user and GECOS fields contain password hints, and external mode requires you to write a custom filter first. Therefore, invoking john with a wordlist and the --rules switch is the most efficient first step in this scenario.
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