Install hashcat with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• aescrypt2hashcat.pl
• apfs2hashcat.py
• bisq2hashcat.py
• bitlocker2hashcat.py
• bitwarden2hashcat.py
• cachedata2hashcat.py
• cryptoloop2hashcat.py
• exodus2hashcat.py
• gitea2hashcat.py
• hashcat
• hashcat_bin
• keybag2hashcat.py
• kremlin2hashcat.py
• lastpass2hashcat.py
• luks2hashcat.py
• metamask2hashcat.py
• mozilla2hashcat.py
• radmin3_to_hashcat.pl
• securenotes2hashcat.pl
• shiro1-to-hashcat.py
• sqlcipher2hashcat.pl
• truecrypt2hashcat.py
• veeamvbk2hashcat.py
• veracrypt2hashcat.py
• virtualbox2hashcat.py
• vmwarevmx2hashcat.py

Project history

The hashcat family existed before the public GitHub repository as separate CPU-oriented hashcat and GPU-oriented oclHashcat tools. In December 2015 the project announced that hashcat and oclHashcat had gone open source under the MIT license. The v2.00 announcement also stated a plan to eventually combine the CPU and GPU projects into one project named `hashcat`.

The public repository began with the v2.00 era. The official wiki later described the unified version as combining the previous CPU-based hashcat, renamed hashcat-legacy, and GPU-based oclHashcat. This consolidation is why the Homebrew package installs one `hashcat` command but also inherits a long history of GPU cracking workflows, rule engines, masks, dictionaries, example hashes, and conversion helper scripts.

Adoption history

hashcat's adoption is tied to penetration testing, forensics, password-audit labs, and capture-the-hash workflows. The open-source announcement explicitly mentioned penetration testers and forensic scientists as users who needed to implement or modify GPU kernels, and it chose MIT licensing partly to make distribution and Linux packaging easier.

Package-manager adoption followed naturally once the tool was open source: the supplied facts show hashcat packaged across Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Nix, MacPorts, Scoop, Alpine, and openSUSE ecosystems. The official README and wiki point users to release archives, platform packages, build docs, a support forum, and hashcat-utils for supplemental cracking workflows.

How it is used

hashcat is invoked with a hash or hash file, an attack mode, an optional hash mode, and candidate sources such as dictionaries, masks, rules, or directories. The wiki documents command-line options for attack mode, hash type, status output, potfiles, restore files, sessions, rule files, masks, device selection, backend information, and benchmark modes.

The official feature list emphasizes multi-OS support, CPU/GPU/APU compute backends, OpenCL and CUDA runtimes, multi-hash and multi-device cracking, sessions, restore support, stdin and file-based candidate input, benchmarking, automatic performance tuning, thermal watchdog behavior, and hundreds of optimized hash types.

Why package nerds care

hashcat is one of the classic heavyweight security formulas: it is a CLI, but packaging it means caring about OpenCL/CUDA/Metal/HIP runtime availability, GPU driver expectations, bundled examples and rules, Perl/Python conversion helpers, and platform-specific build paths.

It is also a good example of how open sourcing changes package visibility. Before v2.00, packaging and modification were constrained; after the MIT switch, Linux distributions and Homebrew-style ecosystems could ship the tool more naturally, and users could inspect kernels, add hash modes, and build from source.

For package nerds, hashcat's long release gaps and major architectural releases matter. Version 6.0.0 introduced a modular hash-mode plugin interface and compute-backend API, while version 7.0.0 followed more than two years of development with bridge APIs, hash-mode autodetection, Docker build support, and many new hash types.

Timeline

• 2015-12: hashcat and oclHashcat move to open source under the MIT license; hashcat v2.00 is released.
• 2016-06: v3.00 is tagged during the unified public-source era.
• 2020-06: v6.0.0 is released with a new plugin interface, compute-backend API, CUDA backend, and extensive developer documentation.
• 2022-09: v6.2.6 appears in the official release archive list.
• 2025-08: v7.0.0 is released after more than two years of development, followed by v7.1.x tags in the same month.

Related projects

• oclHashcat is the GPU-oriented predecessor whose code path became central to the unified hashcat project.
• hashcat-legacy is the CPU-based predecessor name used after unification.
• hashcat-utils provides supplemental tools for cracking workflows.
• John the Ripper is a related password-cracking project often compared through rules, modes, and hash-format workflows.

Sources

• Official hashcat repository, wiki, download/release page, and forum release announcements.