WHAT IS A RAR FILE?

RAR is a proprietary archive file format that supports data compression, error recovery and file spanning. It was developed in 1993 by Russian software engineer Eugene Roshal and the software is licensed by win. … The name RAR stands for Roshal Archive.

A RAR file (short for a Roshal Archive Compressed file) is a compressed file, or data container, that holds one or more other files and folders inside of it.

Think of a RAR file like a regular folder on your computer, where there are sometimes many other files and folders inside of it for the purpose of organizing them.

However, unlike a normal folder, a RAR file needs special software (more on this below) to open and “extract” out the contents.

Most file extensions are pronounced as their individual letters, but RAR is usually treated as a word itself and pronounced as “rahr.”

What Are RAR Files Used For?

You’ll probably only run into a RAR file when you’re downloading computer software. File sharing websites and software distributors sometimes put their files in a RAR file so that they can compress it down to a smaller size, allowing you to download it faster than you otherwise could. Some RAR files are split into parts for easier transmission.https://745c61a32c077300eeecd6c11d81dd1f.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Apart from just saving on download time, RAR files can also be protected with a password and encrypted so that their contents stay hidden unless you know the password. Think of this like a little locked box full of data, with the password being the key.

Most RAR files won’t have a password protecting them; they’re used to store images, documents, videos, or whatever type of file the author wanted.

Another time a RAR file might be useful is when a friend has a long list of files they want to share with you, like photos, for example. Instead of having you download every single image file individually, your friend can first compile the photos into a RAR file and then share just that one file with you.

Once you open a RAR file, you can extract the data from the inside and then use the files like you would any other file on you computer.

WHAT IS KALI LINUX OS?

About Kali Linux

Kali Linux (formerly known as BackTrack Linux) is an open-source, Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing. Kali Linux contains several hundred tools targeted towards various information security tasks, such as Penetration Testing, Security Research, Computer Forensics and Reverse Engineering. Kali Linux is a multi platform solution, accessible and freely available to information security professionals and hobbyists.

Kali Linux was released on the 13th March 2013 as a complete, top-to-bottom rebuild of BackTrack Linux, adhering completely to Debian development standards.

Kali Linux Features

• More than 600 penetration testing tools included: After reviewing every tool that was included in BackTrack, we eliminated a great number of tools that either simply did not work or which duplicated other tools that provided the same or similar functionality. Details on what’s included are on the Kali Tools site.
• Free (as in beer) and always will be: Kali Linux, like BackTrack, is completely free of charge and always will be. You will never, ever have to pay for Kali Linux.
• Open source Git tree: We are committed to the open source development model and our development tree is available for all to see. All of the source code which goes into Kali Linux is available for anyone who wants to tweak or rebuild packages to suit their specific needs.
• FHS compliant: Kali adheres to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, allowing Linux users to easily locate binaries, support files, libraries, etc.
• Wide-ranging wireless device support: A regular sticking point with Linux distributions has been support for wireless interfaces. We have built Kali Linux to support as many wireless devices as we possibly can, allowing it to run properly on a wide variety of hardware and making it compatible with numerous USB and other wireless devices.
• Custom kernel, patched for injection: As penetration testers, the development team often needs to do wireless assessments, so our kernel has the latest injection patches included.
• Developed in a secure environment: The Kali Linux team is made up of a small group of individuals who are the only ones trusted to commit packages and interact with the repositories, all of which is done using multiple secure protocols.
• GPG signed packages and repositories: Every package in Kali Linux is signed by each individual developer who built and committed it, and the repositories subsequently sign the packages as well.
• Multi-language support: Although penetration tools tend to be written in English, we have ensured that Kali includes true multilingual support, allowing more users to operate in their native language and locate the tools they need for the job.
• Completely customizable: We thoroughly understand that not everyone will agree with our design decisions, so we have made it as easy as possible for our more adventurous users to customize Kali Linux to their liking, all the way down to the kernel.
• ARMEL and ARMHF support: Since ARM-based single-board systems like the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black, among others, are becoming more and more prevalent and inexpensive, we knew that Kali’s ARM support would need to be as robust as we could manage, with fully working installations for both ARMELand ARMHF systems. Kali Linux is available on a wide range of ARM devices and has ARM repositories integrated with the mainline distribution so tools for ARM are updated in conjunction with the rest of the distribution.
• For more features of Kali Linux, please see the following page: Kali Linux Overview.

Kali Linux is specifically tailored to the needs of penetration testing professionals, and therefore all documentation on this site assumes prior knowledge of, and familiarity with, the Linux operating system in general. Please see Should I Use Kali Linux? for more details on what makes Kali unique.

Kali linux has many available tools for cracking rar or zip files password John is one of the tools, I will tell you how to use “John” for this purpose as I personally use this tool for the same purpose out of all available tools in Kali linux.

IT IS NOTE WORTHY THAT: The time to be consumed for cracking the password depends on the intensity and type of password. A more COMPLEX password will take more time than a simple one. For example, if a file has a password: 12345 and another file has a password: ###123 then the file with the only numerical password will be very easily cracked compared to the other file.

To use john for achieving your aim,you have to do the following:

1. Getting hashes of the password from the file. Simply write this into your terminal (change the bold letters to the path):
   1. rar2john path_to_your_rar_file path_for_output_file/name.hashes
   2. example: rar2john /root/Desktop/abcd.zip /root/Desktop/output.hashes
2. Now, we will use John for cracking this hash file. Here, you have two options :
   1. Use John’s wordlist for cracking
      1. john path_to_the_hash_file_created_in_previous_step
      2. example: john /root/Desktop/output.hashes
   2. Use self-created word-list in John for cracking (you can use crunch or another tool for this purpose or you can use an already available list on Linux by founding their path simply clicking on wordlist app):
      1. john -worldist=path_to_word-list path_to_the_hash_file
      2. example: john -wordlist=/root/Documents/rockyou.txt /root/Desktop/output.hashes
3. After doing the above steps, you simply have to be patient and wait for the results.
4. If you get a message like “Loaded 1 password hash (PKZIP [32/64])“, then congratulations your password is cracked but if not then sorry you have to try with a better wordlist and give more time to crack it(if you really want it so bad).
5. If the password is cracked, you can see the password as:
   1. john path_to_hash_file –show
   2. example: john /root/Desktop/output.hashes

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