MARKOV

BASIC USAGE
The Markov mode is based from [1], tested and applied to "classical" password
cracking in [2]. This mode similar to the "wordlist" mode because it will only
crack a fixed quantity of passwords.

UTF-8 is handled pretty good. Supply the -p option to calc_stat, and use
--encoding=utf-8 when you run john. Some invalid candidates are generated but
for fast formats it's cheaper to accept them than to try to filter them out.
For slow formats, --external=filter_utf8 can be used to mute them.

Specify the --markov option on the command line to use Markov mode.

You can use any of these forms of the --markov option

--markov[=[MINLEVEL-]LEVEL[:START[:END]]]
--markov=MODE[:[MINLEVEL-]LEVEL[:START[:END]]]

Where:
* MODE is a particular Markov mode corresponding to a config file section
[Markov:MODE]. The Markov mode name is not case sensitive.
If the mode name is not specified, the default mode as specified in section
[Markov:Default] is used.

* LEVEL is the "Markov level".
It can be specified as MIN_LEVEL-MAX_LEVEL or as MAX_LEVEL.
MAX_LEVEL determines the maximum strength of passwords that are going to be
tried. When MAX_LEVEL increases, the quantity of passwords that are going
to be tested increases exponentially.  NOTE, the level 'can' be an empty
value (i.e. just ::).  If so, then the level will be pull in from the
[Markov::MODE] section (the MkvLvl = xxx item)

MIN_LEVEL determines the minimum strength of passwords that are generated.
If LEVEL is 0 or not specified on the command line, the LEVEL interval is
read from config variables in the [Markov:mode] section, or [Markov:Default]
section. If MODE is not specified on the command line, see CONFIGURATION
OPTIONS.

* START is the index of the first password that is going to be tested, starting
with 0.  NOTE, an 'empty' value is treated just like zero.  So these are equal:
--markov=100:0:0:3-12 --markov=100:::3-12

* END is the index of the last password that is going to be tested. When it is
set to 0, it will represent the last possible password. Note, this can also
be an 'empty' value, see above.

* The universal --min-length and --max-length options has deprecated the former
LENGTH parameter.

If MODE is not specified on the command line, see CONFIGURATION OPTIONS.

Using "--markov=100 --max-length=12" will let john check every password whose
length is 12 or less and whose "Markov strength" is 100 or less.


SELECTING THE PARAMETERS
The "LEVEL" parameter should be selected based on the desired maximum running
time. In order to select the appropriate LEVEL, the following steps should be
followed:

1/ Run the --single and --wordlist modes of john, as they will find many
passwords for a low price. Perhaps also --incremental with a low --max-length
that ends in minutes.

2/ Run john for at least 10 seconds (the longer, the more correct measurement)
on the file, for example using the --max-run-time=SECONDS option. For example:
*******************************************************************************
user@host:run$ ./john --markov --max-run=10 hashfile
Loaded 128 password hashes with no different salts (nt, NT MD4 [128/128 X2 SSE2-16])
Press 'q' or Ctrl-C to abort, almost any other key for status
MKV start (stats=$JOHN/stats, lvl=200 len=12 pwd=259356431)
0g 0:00:00:10 DONE (2013-05-30 23:37) 0g/s 24914Kp/s 24914Kc/s 3319MC/s }svi..}
Session completed
*******************************************************************************
This means that john can test 24.9M passwords / second (24914Kp/s) when
attacking this very file. Since John version 1.8, this figure can be used
directly, salts and dupes or not (earlier versions only showed what is now
output as 3319MC/s and that is harder to use).

3/ Evaluate the quantity of passwords that could be tried during the targeted
time. Using the previous example, a targeted cracking time of 3 hours will lead
to a quantity of 269 G passwords (24914000*3600*3) to test.

4/ Use the genmkvpwd command to find the corresponding level. Using the
previous example, with a maximum password length of 12:
*******************************************************************************
user@host:run$ ./genmkvpwd stats 0 12
[...]
lvl=267 (6968 KB for nbparts) 238 G possible passwords (238763065366)
lvl=268 (6994 KB for nbparts) 264 G possible passwords (264314506579)
lvl=269 (7020 KB for nbparts) 292 G possible passwords (292593173165)
[...]
*******************************************************************************
Here, the selected level will be 268 (the highest level where the number of
possible passwords is less than our targeted 269 G).

5/ Run john:
*******************************************************************************
user@host:run$ ./john --markov=268 --max-length=12 hashfile
*******************************************************************************


DISTRIBUTING WORK
The START and END parameter could be used to distribute work among many CPUs.
The old method is to evaluate the combined cracking speed of all CPUs
(adding the step 2 result for every CPUs available) and follow the previous
method. At step 5, share the cracking space among all CPUs, where each share is
proportional with the CPU's cracking speed. When using the new --node or --fork
options (or MPI), this will happen automatically (well, not the adjustment for
heterogenous speeds, but an even split).

For example:
./john --markov --node=3/4    will split the space in four parts and pick the
                              third fourth for this session.
./john --markov --fork=8      will split the space in eight parts and run one
                              process for each. MPI works the same but can
                              launch the job on remote hosts.


CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
Default options for values not specified on the command line are available
in the john.conf file.
Unlike previous john versions which required these values to be specified
in the general [Options] section, starting from this version, these values
have to be specified in the [Markov:Default] secion, if MODE has not been
specified on the command line.
Otherwise the Markov options have to be specified in a config file section
[Markov:MODE].


These are the values that can be specified:

Statsfile - This is the path of the "stat" file.

Specifying a Statsfile is mandatory for Markov mode, because the Statsfile
cannot be specified as a command line parameter with --markov=<params>.

MkvLvl - the default max. level

MkvLvl should be specified, as a fallback for the maximum Markov level
when using --markov or --markov=mode (without any additional parameters),
or if the Markov level specified on the command line is 0.

MkvMaxLen - the default max. length

MkvMaxLen should also be specified, as a fallback for the maximum password
length when using --markov or --markov=mode (without any additional
parameters), --markov=<level> or --markov=mode:<level>, or similar options
that don't include a value for the password length, or if the password length
specified on the command line is 0.

MkvMinLvl - the default min. level

This value is used to determine the min. level if no Markov level was specified
or if the Markov level specified on the command line was 0.
(In other words, when the max. Markov level is read from the Markov mode
section, the min. Markov level will be read from the Markov mode section as
well.) If it is not found, the default min. Markov level will be 0.

MkvMinLen - the default min. length

This value is used to determine the min. length of passwords generated if no
password length was specified or if the password length specified on the
command line was 0.
(In other words, when the max. password length is read from the Markov mode
section, the min. password length will be read from the Markov mode section
as well.)
If it is not found, the default min. password length will be 0.


WHAT IS THE STAT FILE?
The markov mode is based on statistical data from real passwords. This data is
stored in the "stat" file. In order to generate a custom stat file, it is
recommanded to use the new calc_stat command:

user@host:run$ ./calc_stat <dictionary_file> stats


MKVCALCPROBA USAGE
This program is used to generate statistics about cracked passwords. It accepts
as input the "stat" file and a file with a single cracked password per line.
Here is a sample output:

*******************************************************************************
user@host:run$ ./mkvcalcproba stats password.lst
test    33+16+28+20     97      4       40030907        45
password        29+16+30+22+51+25+24+30 227     8       2698006565378672        177
32'[[!  55+24+98+1000+23+29     1229    6       39949021871     1169
charsetsize = 92
*******************************************************************************

Its output is tab separated and should open nicely in spreadsheets. Here is the
meaning of the column:
1/ Cracked password, reprinted from the file
2/ Sum of all "markov probabilities" of every letter of the word. This is
supposed to help identify which parts of the password makes them strong. The
number "1000" is written when no 1st/2nd letter combinations were found in the
stat file (for example ' then [ here).
3/ Markov strength
4/ Password length
5/ Rank when bruteforced "stupidly" (a, b, c, ..., aa, ab, ac ...) considering
that letters are ordered given their appearance probability and the given
charsetsize (92)
6/ Markov strength of the password where the two first letters are removed


REFERENCES

[1] http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/shmat_ccs05pwd.ps
[2] http://actes.sstic.org/SSTIC07/Password_Cracking/