How to crack the password of a zip which is protected with a password?

I have installed fcrackzip. The help page of fcrackzip says

$ fcrackzip --h
fcrackzip version 1.0, a fast/free zip password cracker
written by Marc Lehmann <> You can find more info on*emphasized text*
USAGE: fcrackzip [-b|--brute-force] use brute force algorithm [-D|--dictionary] use a dictionary [-B|--benchmark] execute a small benchmark [-c|--charset characterset] use characters from charset [-h|--help] show this message [--version] show the version of this program [-V|--validate] sanity-check the algortihm [-v|--verbose] be more verbose [-p|--init-password string] use string as initial password/file [-l|--length min-max] check password with length min to max [-u|--use-unzip] use unzip to weed out wrong passwords [-m|--method num] use method number "num" (see below) [-2|--modulo r/m] only calculcate 1/m of the password file... the zipfiles to crack
methods compiled in (* = default): 0: cpmask 1: zip1
*2: zip2, USE_MULT_TAB

How can I crack the zipfile which is protected with password with fcrackzip or any other available tool?

1 Answer

There are a few ways to do this.

1. fcrackzip: To brute force you can use

    fcrackzip -u -b -v file.zip 

   The -u flag weeds out incorrect passwords, -b is for brute-forcing, -l is for specifying the password length, e.g: 4-8. You can use a password-list with the -D and -p flags, like so:

    fcrackzip -u -b -D -p /home/Desktop/passwordlist.txt file.zip

2. RarCrack:

    rarcrack --type zip/7z/rar file.zip 

   I like this one as it saves cracking progress to a file called yourfilename.zip.xml, and will pick up where you left off when you next use it.

3. John the Ripper: Generate the hash first using

    zip2john file.zip > whateveryouwanttocallit.txt 

   or use rar2john, depending on the file, and then:

    john --format=zip whateveryoucallit.txt

   or --format=rar.

   All of these can take a while depending on the length of the password, and the characters, but there you go.

   If any of these tools aren't installed, install them with

    sudo apt-get install rarcrack/john/fcrackzip 

   If this is still not enough, you can download a fast Windows zip cracker, such as Passper for Zip, and run it with Wine.