Pyrit
The WPA/WPA2-PSK Cracker.
Overview
Pyrit is a highly specialized tool designed for one purpose: cracking WPA and WPA2-PSK authentication keys at high speed. It achieves this by offloading the computationally intensive work to GPUs (using CUDA or OpenCL) and by pre-computing hashes in a large database (rainbow tables). This allows it to test millions of passwords per second, making it significantly faster than CPU-only crackers for dictionary and brute-force attacks on captured WPA handshakes.
✨ Key Features
- GPU-accelerated WPA/WPA2-PSK cracking
- Support for NVIDIA CUDA and AMD/Intel OpenCL
- Pre-computation of password hashes into a database
- Analyzes and verifies captured handshake files
- Can function as a client to distribute cracking work across multiple machines
🎯 Key Differentiators
- Highly optimized for WPA/WPA2-PSK cracking
- Leverages GPU power for massive performance gains
- Ability to pre-compute and store hashes in a database
Unique Value: Provides one of the fastest methods for cracking WPA/WPA2 keys by harnessing the parallel processing power of modern GPUs.
🎯 Use Cases (3)
✅ Best For
- Cracking a WPA2 password from a captured handshake file using a large dictionary and a modern GPU.
💡 Check With Vendor
Verify these considerations match your specific requirements:
- Capturing network traffic
- Attacking WEP or WPS
- Users without a compatible, powerful GPU
🏆 Alternatives
While Hashcat is a more general-purpose hash cracker, Pyrit is highly specialized for WPA/WPA2 and was one of the pioneers in this space. It is significantly faster than the CPU-based cracking in Aircrack-ng.
💻 Platforms
✅ Offline Mode Available
🔌 Integrations
💰 Pricing
Free tier: Full functionality, open-source.
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