Linux.com: CLI Magic: John the Ripper

“There is more to the CLI than a collection of operating system
commands. There are many tools–applications written without a
thought as to the operating system–available at the CLI to handle
a wide range of chores. Like cracking passwords, for example. Not
for nefarious purposes, you understand: but for education. If
you’ve ever wondered just how secure your passwords are, John the
Ripper is a good way to find out. A much nicer way to find out than
having a script-kiddy crack it [in] seconds.

“John the Ripper is part of the Openwall GNU/*/Linux project, or
Owl for short. It’s been around for years, and has been ported to
Windows, DOS, BeOS, and quite a few flavors of Unix. If it’s not
available as a binary for your distribution, download the source
code for the latest version from the website and build it
yourself…”

Complete
Story