Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH v13) — Question 1

Tony is a penetration tester tasked with performing a penetration test. After gaining initial access to a target system, he finds a list of hashed passwords.
Which of the following tools would not be useful for cracking the hashed passwords?

Answer options

• A. Hashcat
• B. John the Ripper
• C. THC-Hydra
• D. netcat

Correct answer: D

Explanation

The correct answer is D, netcat, as it is primarily a networking utility used for reading from and writing to network connections, rather than a password cracking tool. In contrast, Hashcat and John the Ripper are specifically designed for cracking hashed passwords, while THC-Hydra is used for password brute-forcing against various protocols.