Is a sha256crypt ($5$) hash reversible?

No. sha256crypt ($5$) is a one-way hash; you cannot reverse it. You can only guess inputs and compare, which is what hashcat and John do.

What is the hashcat mode for sha256crypt ($5$)?

Use `-m 7400` to tell hashcat to treat the input as sha256crypt ($5$).

How long does it take to crack sha256crypt ($5$)?

sha256crypt ($5$) is intentionally slow, so brute force is impractical — success depends on the password appearing in your wordlist.

Is a sha256crypt ($5$) hash reversible?

No. sha256crypt ($5$) is a one-way hash; you cannot reverse it. You can only guess inputs and compare, which is what hashcat and John do.

What is the hashcat mode for sha256crypt ($5$)?

Use `-m 7400` to tell hashcat to treat the input as sha256crypt ($5$).

How long does it take to crack sha256crypt ($5$)?

sha256crypt ($5$) is intentionally slow, so brute force is impractical — success depends on the password appearing in your wordlist.

How to identify and crack a sha256crypt ($5$) hash

sha256crypt ($5$) is a unix crypt 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 sha256crypt ($5$) entirely in your browser — your hash is never uploaded. A typical example looks like this:

$5$rounds=5000$GX7BopJZJxPc/KEK$le16UF8I2Anb.rOrn22AUPWvzUETDGefUmAV8AZkGcD

Cracking sha256crypt ($5$) with hashcat

Save the hash to a file and run hashcat in mode -m 7400. Expect this to be slow — use a focused wordlist. Start with a wordlist such as rockyou.txt:

echo '$5$rounds=5000$GX7BopJZJxPc/KEK$le16UF8I2Anb.rOrn22AUPWvzUETDGefUmAV8AZkGcD' > hash.txt && hashcat -m 7400 hash.txt /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt

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

echo '$5$rounds=5000$GX7BopJZJxPc/KEK$le16UF8I2Anb.rOrn22AUPWvzUETDGefUmAV8AZkGcD' > hash.txt && hashcat -m 7400 hash.txt /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt -r /usr/share/hashcat/rules/best64.rule

Cracking sha256crypt ($5$) with John the Ripper

John the Ripper can attack the same hash with the sha256crypt format:

echo '$5$rounds=5000$GX7BopJZJxPc/KEK$le16UF8I2Anb.rOrn22AUPWvzUETDGefUmAV8AZkGcD' > hash.txt && john --format=sha256crypt --wordlist=/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt hash.txt