# brendan-rius/c-jwt-cracker

JWT brute force cracker written in C

Repository: https://github.com/brendan-rius/c-jwt-cracker
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/c-jwt-cracker
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: jwt-authentication, cracker, security, brute-force
Last push: 2023-06-02T20:46:11+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3513, "days_push": 1188, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2559, forks 272 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:00.892784+00:00)

## What it is
A multi-threaded JWT brute-force secret key cracker written in C using OpenSSL. It attempts to recover the HMAC signing key of a JWT token so the token can be forged, for security testing purposes.

## Use cases
- crack the secret key of a JWT token
- test whether my JWT signing secrets are too weak
- brute force HS256 HS384 HS512 HMAC keys
- audit JWT implementations for weak secrets
- recover a forgotten JWT signing key
- run a JWT cracker in Docker

## When to choose
- you need a fast, multi-threaded C-based JWT secret brute-forcer
- you want to test JWTs signed with HS256/HS384/HS512 or other OpenSSL HMAC algorithms
- you want a simple Dockerized tool for a security assessment

## When to avoid
- you need to crack asymmetric JWT algorithms like RS256 or ES256
- you need GPU-accelerated or distributed cracking at scale
- you want a maintained tool with active development

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: security, cryptography, penetration-testing, cli
- domain: security, penetration-testing, developer-tools
- platform: cli
- tags: jwt, brute-force, cracker, hmac, openssl, pentest, linux, macos, docker

## Member repositories
- brendan-rius/c-jwt-cracker (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:00.892784+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:23:32.068142+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/brendan-rius/c-jwt-cracker (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:00.892784+00:00, sha 851b1eb3ed3f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.