Cracking hashes with Python

[TheRandomPast]

On Monday, 25 November 2013 23:47:52 UTC, Chris Angelico  wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 26, 2013 at 10:32 AM, TheRandomPast wrote:
> 
> > I have a school project to do where I've to download MD5 Hashes from a particular website and write a code that will crack them. Does anyone know where I'll find out more information on how to do this? There's only 4 hashes that I need to do so it doesn't have to be a large script just needs to be able to download the hashes from the website. Can anyone help me out?
> 
> 
> 
> Do you actually need to download them from that web site, or can you
> 
> simply embed them into your code? The latter would be far easier.
> 
> 
> 
> I'm going to assume that you don't need to do anything more
> 
> complicated than brute-force these, and I'll also assume that they're
> 
> unsalted hashes.
> 
> 
> 
> With a cryptographic hash function, you take text, put it into the
> 
> function, and get back a number (or a hex or binary string, which
> 
> comes to the same thing). You can't go from the number to the string;
> 
> however, you can generate a large number of strings to see if any of
> 
> them results in the same number. You can take "large number" all the
> 
> way, and generate every possible string of a certain length, or you
> 
> can go through a dictionary and generate words. Once you find
> 
> something that matches, you have a plausible guess that this is the
> 
> password.
> 
> 
> 
> There's a basic idea of what "cracking" a hash means. Put a bit of
> 
> code together, see how you go. If you get stuck, post your code and
> 
> how you're stuck, and we'll try to help; but we won't simply write
> 
> your code for you. (By the way, thanks for being up-front about it
> 
> being a school project. The honesty is appreciated, even though we
> 
> would almost certainly be able to tell even if you didn't. :) )
> 
> 
> 
> One last thing: Please get off Google Groups. It makes your posts look
> 
> ugly, which makes you look bad, and that's (probably!) unfair. Use a
> 
> better news client, or subscribe to the mailing list
> 
> python-list at python.org and read and post through that. There are a
> 
> number of regulars here who simply trash all Google Groups posts
> 
> unread, because they're just not worth reading - switching clients
> 
> will help you be heard, and will mean you don't annoy people with
> 
> form. Of course, if you want to annoy us with substance, that's your
> 
> God-given right. :)
> 
> 
> 
> ChrisA

Hi, thanks for replying. I don't like google groups layout either I was just unsure as to what to use. I already have some code on the go I just couldn't figure out the best way to do what I wanted to do so I thought I'd ask and see if anyone could point me in the right direction. I *have* to download them, i know how many there are because I used a text editor to find them. 

What client do you suggest I use instead of google groups?