Welcome to PLACRACK V2.17.



What is PLACRACK?

    PLACRACK was originally a port of QCRACK V1.01, but has evolved
    so far beyond just a port that I am more-or-less considering it
    to be my own creation.  About the only remaining vestige of
    QCRACK-edness is the overall concept of creating a hash file once
    and cracking from it, rather than cracking directly from a wordlist.



But, what *is* PLACRACK?

    PLACRACK is a unix (DES) password file cracker.  It is different
    than most other password crackers in that, rather than attempting
    to crack encrypted entries directly from a wordlist, it first
    creates a hash file and then merely uses that hash file as a
    database in which passwords can be rapidly looked up.  The good
    side of this is that, once a hash file has been created, any number
    of password files can be cracked using that hash file in about
    the amount of time it takes your computer to physically search
    through the file.  The down side, however, is that hash files tend
    to be large.  I have a hash file which contains 120,000 entries,
    and it takes up approximately 500 meg of disk space.  I personally
    consider this to be a trivial expense, since disk space is cheap.



So tell me, how does it work?

    Well, it's very simple.  First, get a wordlist.  Next, make that
    wordlist into a hash file with the "i" option of PLACRACK.  Now
    you are ready to actually use PLACRACK.  So get out your unix
    password file, and use the "c" option to start cracking.



What do all these options do?

    Just type "PLACRACK" with no parameters to see all the usage
    options.  Then, for more details, type "PLACRACK <option>",
    where "<option>" is the letter of the option you want more details
    about.  This will provide a detailed explanation of everything
    that PLACRACK can do.



So now what?

    Well, PLACRACK includes several options for maintaining hash files
    and appending new words into them.  There's not much else.  It's
    all very simple and to-the-point.



Anything else?    

    Shareware/Freeware/Whatever?
 
        PLACRACK is free in most cases.  It is copyrighted and I
        reserve all rights to it.  If you are an employee of any
        federal or state agency, or are a contractor thereof, a
        registration fee of 1,000,000 US dollars is required BEFORE
        any use of PLACRACK whatsoever is permitted. 
       

    How about a disclaimer?
    
        This program is purely for research purposes only.  By using
        PLACRACK you agree to assume all responsibility for its use.
        This program is not guaranteed to be suitable for any purposes
        whatsoever, including but not limited to any and all primary
        functionality described in this documentation.  Furthermore,
        by using this program you agree to pay for any and all legal
        fees incurred by myself as a result, directly or indirectly,
        of your actions.

    Any credits?

        QCRACK is copyright 1995, The Crypt Keeper.
        that's all.
