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SY0-501 · Question #412

A hacker has a packet capture that contains: ....Joe Smith.........E289F21CD33E4F57890DDEA5CF267ED2.. ...Jane.Doe...........AD1FAB10D33E4F57890DDEA5CF267ED2…

The correct answer is A. Password cracker. The provided packet capture contains usernames alongside long alphanumeric strings resembling password hashes. A hacker would use a password cracker to attempt to decrypt these hashes to obtain the plaintext passwords.

Submitted by certguy· Mar 4, 2026Threats, vulnerabilities, and mitigations

Question

A hacker has a packet capture that contains:

....Joe Smith.........E289F21CD33E4F57890DDEA5CF267ED2.. ...Jane.Doe...........AD1FAB10D33E4F57890DDEA5CF267ED2.. ....John.Key..........3374E9E7E33E4F57890DDEA5CF267ED2.. Which of the following tools will the hacker use against this type of capture?

Options

  • APassword cracker
  • BVulnerability scanner
  • CDLP scanner
  • DFuzzer

How the community answered

(40 responses)
  • A
    75% (30)
  • B
    15% (6)
  • C
    8% (3)
  • D
    3% (1)

Why each option

The provided packet capture contains usernames alongside long alphanumeric strings resembling password hashes. A hacker would use a password cracker to attempt to decrypt these hashes to obtain the plaintext passwords.

APassword crackerCorrect

The alphanumeric strings associated with the usernames are indicative of password hashes. A password cracker is a specialized tool designed to take these hashes and attempt to determine the original plaintext passwords through various techniques like brute-force, dictionary attacks, or rainbow tables, which is precisely what a hacker would do with this type of captured data.

BVulnerability scanner

A vulnerability scanner identifies security weaknesses and misconfigurations in systems, but it does not directly process or crack captured password hashes.

CDLP scanner

A DLP scanner is used to prevent sensitive data from leaving an organization, not to decrypt or crack captured password hashes.

DFuzzer

A fuzzer is used to discover software bugs by sending malformed or unexpected inputs to a program, which is unrelated to cracking captured password hashes.

Concept tested: Password hash cracking tools and techniques

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/plan/security-best-practices/security-best-practices-for-passwords#password-storage-and-attack-methods

Topics

#password cracking#password hashes#credential theft#hacking tools

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