pkcs12cracker High-performance, multi-threaded PKCS#12 password cracker written in Rust. Supports dictionary, pattern-based, and brute force attacks with focus on performance and reliability.Its main goal is to be faster, more efficient, and more reliable than existing tools written in Go and C.

Documentation

API reference and usage examples are available at docs.rs.

Installation

cargo install pkcs12cracker

# Brew tap (macOS)
brew tap wowinter13/pkcs12cracker
brew install pkcs12cracker

# Or build from source
git clone https://github.com/wowinter13/pkcs12cracker
cd pkcs12cracker
cargo build --release

Know-How

• Memory-mapped file handling for efficient dictionary processing
• Parallel processing with configurable thread count
• Cache-friendly chunk-based password cracking
• Optimized string handling and memory allocation
• Multiple attack strategies support

Discussable:

• OS related performance optimizations.
• Explore advanced multithreading techniques (try scoped threads or another raw threading approach).

Basic Usage

Help

Fast, multi-threaded PKCS#12 password cracker

Usage: pkcs12cracker [OPTIONS] <FILE>...

Arguments:
  <FILE>...  Path to the PKCS#12 (.p12/.pfx) file to crack

Options:
  -d, --dictionary <FILE>      Use dictionary-based attack with the specified wordlist file
  -p, --pattern <PATTERN>      Use pattern-based attack (e.g., 'Pass@@rd' where '@' marks variable positions)
  -s, --pattern-symbol <CHAR>  Symbol to mark variable positions in pattern [default: @] [default: @]
  -m, --min-length <NUM>       Minimum password length for brute force attack [default: 1] [default: 1]
      --max-length <NUM>       Maximum password length for brute force attack [default: 6] [default: 6]
  -b, --brute-force            Enable brute force attack mode
  -c, --charset <SETS>         Character sets to use in brute force attack
      --custom-chars <CHARS>   Custom character set for brute force attack
      --delimiter <CHAR>       Dictionary file entry delimiter [default: newline] [default: "\n"]
  -t, --threads <NUM>          Number of cracking threads [default: number of CPU cores] [default: 1]
  -h, --help                   Print help (see more with '--help')
  -V, --version                Print version

Dictionary Attack

Uses a wordlist file to crack passwords:

# Basic usage with newline-separated dictionary
pkcs12cracker -d wordlist.txt cert.p12

Pattern-Based Attack

Cracks passwords matching a specific pattern:

# Custom symbol for variable positions
pkcs12cracker -p "Pass##rd" -s "#" cert.p12

Brute Force Attack

# Custom character sets
pkcs12cracker -b -c aAn cert.p12  # alphanumeric

Advanced Usage

Character Sets

The -c flag supports combining multiple character sets:

• a - lowercase letters (a-z)
• A - uppercase letters (A-Z)
• n - digits (0-9)
• s - special characters (!@#$%^&*...)
• x - all of the above

Examples:

# Uppercase + numbers
pkcs12cracker -b -c An cert.p12

# All characters except special
pkcs12cracker -b -c aAn cert.p12

# Everything
pkcs12cracker -b -c x cert.p12

Custom Character Sets

For specific requirements, use --custom-chars:

# Combine with standard sets
pkcs12cracker -b -c an --custom-chars="!@#" cert.p12

Benchmarks

See BENCHMARKS.md for more information.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.