# openwall/john

John the Ripper jumbo - advanced offline password cracker, which supports hundreds of hash and cipher types, and runs on many operating systems, CPUs, GPUs, and even some FPGAs

Repository: https://github.com/openwall/john
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/john
Homepage: https://www.openwall.com/john/
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: john, c, ripper, password, jtr, opencl, gpgpu, assembler, cracker, crypt, hash, simd, openmp, gpu, fpga, mpi
Last push: 2026-08-01T22:19:56+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 75/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 95, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5374, "days_push": 32, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 13543, forks 2543 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:03.506231+00:00)

## What it is
John the Ripper jumbo is an open-source offline password cracker supporting hundreds of hash and cipher types, from Unix and Windows password hashes to encrypted archives, keys, and disk images. It runs on many operating systems and accelerates cracking on CPUs (SIMD, OpenMP, MPI) and GPUs (OpenCL), plus some FPGAs.

## Use cases
- crack weak unix passwords
- recover a forgotten zip or rar archive password
- audit password strength across an organization
- crack wpa-psk handshakes from a wifi capture
- decrypt an encrypted pdf or office document password
- recover ssh or gpg private key passphrases
- test password hashes from a database dump

## When to choose
- you need to crack or audit a wide variety of hash and cipher types offline
- you want GPU acceleration via OpenCL for faster cracking
- you need a mature, actively maintained open-source password recovery tool
- you are doing penetration testing or security auditing of authentication systems

## When to avoid
- you need online or network-based password attacks rather than offline hash cracking
- you want a GUI-driven cracking workflow with minimal configuration
- you need to crack passwords protected by modern memory-hard KDFs at scale without significant hardware
- you require a commercially supported product without the jumbo version's experimental edge

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: security, cryptography, cli, gpu-computing
- domain: security, penetration-testing, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: password-cracking, hash-cracking, password-audit, opencl, simd, penetration-testing, password-recovery, john-the-ripper, command-line, linux, macos, gpu

## Member repositories
- openwall/john (main) score 75

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:03.506231+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 2026-08-29T17:13:13.487069+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/openwall/john (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:03.506231+00:00, sha 837a6027d417)
  - homepage: https://www.openwall.com/john/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:08:02.178930+00:00, sha 8247fe1ab268)
  - site_page: https://www.openwall.com/john/doc/INSTALL.shtml (fetched 2026-08-29T08:08:02.188485+00:00, sha a40df487b209)
  - site_page: https://www.openwall.com/john/doc (fetched 2026-08-29T08:08:02.190409+00:00, sha 7f8519866221)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.