Labs / Office Password Cracker
- Challenge
- Released 29 Oct 2025
🔐 Can you crack into this locked corporate document?
A password-protected Word document stands between you and critical information. The file is encrypted, the contents hidden behind a corporate password. Armed with the right tools and techniques, can you break through the protection and uncover what lies within? Time to put your password cracking skills to the test.
Start Lab Environment
Launch your dedicated AWS machine to begin hacking
Challenge Overview
Password-protected Microsoft Office documents are commonly used in corporate environments to secure sensitive information. However, weak passwords can be cracked using specialized tools and techniques.
Learning Objectives
- Understanding Office document encryption mechanisms
- Learning to use password cracking tools like john and hashcat
- Extracting hashes from Office documents
- Performing offline password attacks
- Recognizing the importance of strong passwords
Challenge Scenario
During a security assessment, you have obtained a password-protected Word document from a corporate file server. The document contains confidential information that you need to access. Your task is to crack the password and retrieve the sensitive data inside.
Required Tools
- office2john - Extract password hashes from Office documents (part of John the Ripper)
- john - Password cracking tool with support for Office formats
- hashcat - Alternative GPU-accelerated password cracker
- LibreOffice/Microsoft Office - To open the document after cracking
Skills Required
- Basic command-line usage
- Understanding of password cracking concepts
- Familiarity with hash extraction tools