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I'm playing around with Hydra and an xmpp authentication.

I created a basic xmpp server of my own, reproducing an authentication (server side) from a clear text pcap file. I think I got something wrong in my connections handling (I'm creating one thread per new connection but I close it on error) but nevermind, this is not my point.

I fixed this scalability problem. For those interested, it was due to an optimization from Hydra, not replaying the first, let's call it "Hello request". A regular authentication needs 4 requests or responses from a client, 4 packets from the server too. And this optimization skips the first, going straight to the 2nd, that looks like that in my case : <auth xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' mechanism='SCRAM-SHA-1'/>

Stats / Info :

  • Conf of the VM : 2 CPU, 2 GB RAM.
  • Password location in the wordlist : 795th position out of 60k.
  • Single task : ~50 tries / min -> ~17min to find the password.
  • 16 tasks : ~820 tries / min -> 1h14min to complete without finding the pw ('cause of the connections handling problem).

New stats (after optimization) :

  • Single task : ~90 tries / min -> 9min 13s
  • 16 tasks : ~1400+ tries / min -> 33s

The question is: is Hydra splitting the wordlist into 16 equal parts? And how?

One part size is ~3.8k passwords. Is the thread 1 working on the first 3.8k passwords? The thread 2 working on the 3801rst -> 7600 ? and so on till thread 16? So that the last 16 tested passwords would be the 3799th, 7599th and so on?

The other possibility is that the thread 1 for example proceeds every 1%16 (modulo) password from the wordlist, so that the passwords are tested in the same order than if we had only 1 task (/ thread) running.

I can test it myself but if someone already did, please enlighten my darkness.

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  • This question would definitely benefit from some formatting. ;) Also could you maybe include why this is important and what implications it has? – Tom K. Nov 29 '18 at 14:44
  • Is it better this way ? :) It's important if you sort your passwords by relevance (relevant passwords at first). – T. Rode Nov 29 '18 at 16:26
  • The hydra manual says that the default number of tasks is 16, so if using a file, it breaks it up into 16 sections to test each section in parallel. – schroeder♦ Nov 29 '18 at 17:18
  • Yes thanks, but the question is how are they processed. Either 1.2.3.4.5...59999.60000 with 16 threads, or in my case 1.3801.7601... 2.3802.7602... to end with 3800th.7600th... I don't know if that's clear. – T. Rode Nov 29 '18 at 23:12
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I found the answer.

Hydra is, I think, doing a modulo [number of tasks] to create each "subfile" that are processed in parallel. Why that ? Because it's 99% the same sequence of passwords test, I mean they are processed in the same order.

ie : Password number 1 will be tested as number 1 launching 16 tasks, password number 2000 will be tested in 2000th position as well in the 16 tasks hydra processing.

It also means the thread/task 1 will process password 1, 17, 33, 49...

Thread/task 2 will process password 2, 18, 34, 50... and so on.

And of course passwords are processed sequentially, ie in the same order, if you launch hydra with only 1 task.

I tested it on 8k passwords and it's almost all the time the same order in both cases, with very little variation sometimes.

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