How to identify and crack a PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512 hash

PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512 is a key-derivation hash type. It uses a deliberately slow, salted key-derivation scheme, so only weak or short passwords are realistically recoverable. This page shows how to recognise it and the exact commands to attack it.

All identification runs locally in WebAssembly. The commands below write the hash to a local file on your machine — nothing is sent to this site.

Identifying the hash

The hash identifier on the home page detects PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512 entirely in your browser — your hash is never uploaded. A typical example looks like this:

sha512:1000:ODQyNzU3Mg==:Gd2Ex/k/k4fU+Yd0c3w==

Cracking PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512 with hashcat

Save the hash to a file and run hashcat in mode -m 7100. Expect this to be slow — use a focused wordlist. Start with a wordlist such as rockyou.txt:

echo 'sha512:1000:ODQyNzU3Mg==:Gd2Ex/k/k4fU+Yd0c3w==' > hash.txt && hashcat -m 7100 hash.txt /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt

Add a rule set to mutate dictionary words (capitalisation, leetspeak, appended digits) and dramatically widen coverage:

echo 'sha512:1000:ODQyNzU3Mg==:Gd2Ex/k/k4fU+Yd0c3w==' > hash.txt && hashcat -m 7100 hash.txt /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt -r /usr/share/hashcat/rules/best64.rule

Cracking PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512 with John the Ripper

John the Ripper can attack the same hash with the pbkdf2-hmac-sha512 format:

echo 'sha512:1000:ODQyNzU3Mg==:Gd2Ex/k/k4fU+Yd0c3w==' > hash.txt && john --format=pbkdf2-hmac-sha512 --wordlist=/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt hash.txt