john:contests

john-users team

Team “john-users” participates in hash cracking contests (aka password cracking contests). We are open to new members who would like to use FOSS hash cracking tools. See below.

There is track of our participation in contests below. Team hashcat maintains similar table of achievements.

List of contests:

CMIYC: Crack Me If You Can contest by KoreLogic as a part of DEFCON conference. In 2013, Pro and Street categories of participants were introduced. Categories have different sets of hashes and separate scoreboards.
CMIYC game: Crack Me If You Can contest by KoreLogic as a part of DerbyCon conference; it has game-like or quest-like format where cracks are parts of url with next level.
Hash Runner: by Positive Technologies as a part of PHDays conference in 2012-2015.
PCrack: aka Password CTF / Crack The Password / CrackThe.PW, @SAINTCONPCrack as a part of SaintCon conference. It has separate scoreboards for on-site and off-site (online only) teams.
CracktheCon: by CynoSure Prime at CypherCon 2019. It has Pro and Street categories for participation, with different hashes and scoreboards.
Also hashkiller.co.uk forum hosted their own contest several times. But we skipped it.
Also there were other smaller contests.
- Royce Williams creates password based puzzles and maintains a list of contests.

Contest	Year	Our place	Our write-up / comment
CMIYC	2010	4	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2010/08/12/11
CMIYC	2011	3	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2011/08/18/10
Hash Runner	2012	4	no write-up for this contest
CMIYC	2012	2	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2012/08/14/1
Hash Runner	2013	1	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2013/07/06/1
CMIYC	2013	3, Pro	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2014/08/07/1
Hash Runner	2014	3	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2014/05/29/2
CMIYC	2014	4, Pro	no write-up for this contest
Hash Runner	2015	2	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2015/05/24/4
CMIYC	2015	4, Pro	no write-up for this contest
CMIYC game	2017	3	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2018/08/25/1
PCrack	2017	3, offsite	late submission; write-up by orgs
CMIYC	2018	3, Pro	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2018/08/27/10
PCrack	2018	3, offsite	no write-up for this contest
CMIYC game	2018	3	TBD
CracktheCon	2019	3, Pro	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2019/05/12/1
CMIYC	2019	3, Pro	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2019/11/03/2
PCrack	2019	2, offsite	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2019/10/29/1
CMIYC	2020	3, Pro	TBD
CMIYC	2021	4, Pro	TBD
CracktheCon	2022	3, Pro	https://www.openwall.com/lists/john-users/2022/05/10/2

Invitation to john-users team

john-users team was formed in the community of john-users mailing list and consists of enthusiasts of FOSS and of hash cracking then. So it is important for us to use only FOSS tools. We are looking for new active members who would fit into this atmosphere well. You need to be nice, active and ready to learn on your own. You don't need to be a great cracker or to have a lot of hardware. In the contests, ideas can help much more than raw hardware power.

Requirements to participate on john-user team:

You have some basic skills: file copying over ssh, basic usage of john, irc, mailing (it is ok to learn it on your own before or during the contest),

You'd like to use John the Ripper or other FOSS tool for hash cracking; you don't want to use non-free software for hash cracking including freeware, shareware, closed-source and so on.

You value good sportsmanship and dislike cheating.

You are a subscriber of john-users mailing list, or you were invited by a member.

The team uses a server to collaborate during the contest. So every member needs an user account there.

So if you would like to participate, send a private mail to Aleksey Cherepanov[1] with the following info:

who invited you, or how long you are on john-users mailing list, (or why you think you would fit the team well),

preferred user name (only lower case letters and digits, please),

public ssh key (get a new key with 'ssh-keygen' command).

[1] Aleksey Cherepanov: lyosha ,at, openwall.com