Password Recovery Basics > Recovering Strong Passwords

A Mask Attack can be used to speed-up the password search if certain characteristics of the password are known. A mask consist of constant and variable parts. In Elcomsoft mask engine one can use symbols, groups of symbols and dictionary words as variable parts of the mask. Variable parts of the mask always begin with the "?" character.

Syntax

•?? - the '?' symbol itself

•?c - small Latin character (from 'a' to 'z')

•?C - large Latin character (from 'A' to 'Z')

•?$ - one of the special characters (small set): !@#$%^&*()-_+= and space

•?@ - one of the special characters (large/complete set): !\"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{|}~ and space

•?# - any printable character with codes in the range of x20 to 0x7F

•?d - one digit (0 to 9)

•?w[dictionary_name.udic] - words from a dictionary

•?d(min-max) - a number from min to max

•?1..9(min-max) - min..max characters from the custom set, min >= 0

Examples

testmask

Only the constant part. This mask will try only one word:

testmask

test?d

The constant part is "test", the variable part is "?d". This mask will try the following passwords:

test0

test1

test2

...

test9

John?d(1-2)

Will try 1 to 2 digits after the constant part "John":

John0

John1

...

John9

John00

John01

...

John99

Eva?d(1970-2010)

Adds a year of birth at the end of the constant part "Eva":

Eva1970

Eva1971

Eva1972

...

Eva2010

John?w[last_names.udic]

Contents of the last_names.udic:

Smith

Doe

Woo

This mask will try dictionary words from the dictionary last_names.udic after the constant part "John":

JohnSmith

JohnDoe

JohnWoo