Cain and Abel (software)
By Contributors to Wikimedia projects
Published: 2006-02-27 · Archived: 2026-04-05 14:30:40 UTC
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cain and Abel
A screenshot of Cain and Abel interface.
Developer Massimiliano Montoro
Stable release 4.9.56 / April 7, 2014; 11 years ago
Operating system Microsoft Windows
Type Password cracking/Packet analysis
License Freeware
Website web.archive.org/web/20190603235413/http://www.oxid.it/cain.html
Cain and Abel (often abbreviated to Cain) was a password recovery tool for Microsoft Windows. It could recover
many kinds of passwords using methods such as network packet sniffing, cracking various password hashes by
using methods such as dictionary attacks, brute force and cryptanalysis attacks.[1] Cryptanalysis attacks were done
via rainbow tables which could be generated with the winrtgen.exe program provided with Cain and Abel.[2] Cain
and Abel was maintained by Massimiliano Montoro[3] and Sean Babcock.
WEP cracking
Speeding up packet capture speed by wireless packet injection
Ability to record VoIP conversations
Decoding scrambled passwords
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Calculating hashes
Traceroute
Revealing password boxes
Uncovering cached passwords
Dumping protected storage passwords
ARP spoofing
IP to MAC Address resolver
Network Password Sniffer
LSA secret dumper
Ability to crack:
LM & NTLM hashes
NTLMv2 hashes
Microsoft Cache hashes
Microsoft Windows PWL files
Cisco IOS – MD5 hashes
Cisco PIX – MD5 hashes
APOP – MD5 hashes
CRAM-MD5 MD5 hashes
OSPF – MD5 hashes
RIPv2 MD5 hashes
VRRP – HMAC hashes
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) Triple DES
MD2 hashes
MD4 hashes
MD5 hashes
SHA-1 hashes
SHA-2 hashes
RIPEMD-160 hashes
Kerberos 5 hashes
RADIUS shared key hashes
IKE PSK hashes
MSSQL hashes
MySQL hashes
Oracle and SIP hashes
Status with virus scanners
[edit]
Some virus scanners (and browsers, e.g. Google Chrome 20.0.1132.47) detect Cain and Abel as malware.
Avast! detects it as "Win32:Cain-B [Tool]" and classifies it as "Other potentially dangerous program",[4] while
Microsoft Security Essentials detects it as "Win32/Cain!4_9_14" and classifies it as "Tool: This program has
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potentially unwanted behavior." Even if Cain's install directory, as well as the word "Cain", are added to Avast's
exclude list, the real-time scanner has been known to stop Cain from functioning. However, the latest version of
Avast no longer blocks Cain.
Symantec (the developer of the Norton family of computer security software) identified a buffer overflow
vulnerability in version 4.9.24 that allowed for remote code execution in the event the application was used to
open a large RDP file, as might occur when using the program to analyze network traffic.[5] The vulnerability had
been present in the previous version (4.9.23) as well[6] and was patched in a subsequent release.
Black-hat hacker
White-hat hacker
Hacker (computer security)
Password cracking
Aircrack-ng
Crack
DaveGrohl
Hashcat
John the Ripper
L0phtCrack
Ophcrack
RainbowCrack
1. ^ "How to use Cain and Abel". Cybrary. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
2. ^ "ECE 9609/9069: Introduction to Hacking". Whisper Lab. Archived from the original on 2019-08-24.
Retrieved 2019-08-24.
3. ^ Zorz, Mirko (2009-07-07). "Q&A: Cain & Abel, the password recovery tool". Help Net Security.
Archived from the original on 2024-05-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
4. ^ Metev, Denis (2019-07-29). "What Is Brute-Force And How to Stay Safe?". Tech Jury. Archived from the
original on 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
5. ^ "Attack: Massimiliano Montoro Cain & Abel .rdp File BO: Attack Signature – Symantec Corp".
Symantec. Archived from the original on March 13, 2014. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
6. ^ "Massimiliano Montoro Cain & Abel Malformed '.rdp' File Buffer Overflow Vulnerability".
www.securityfocus.com. Archived from the original on 2020-02-28. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
Official website (archived)
Interview with Massimiliano Montoro, developer of Cain & Abel
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel_(software)
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