March 2nd, 2009
The return of L0phtCrack
More than two years after Symantec pulled the plug on L0phtCrack, the venerable password cracking tool is being prepped for a return to the spotlight.
The original creators of L0phtCrack has reacquired the tool with plans to release a new version at next week’s SOURCE Boston conference.
A teaser post on the l0phtcrack.com Web site mentions “new features and platform support,” which, according to Space Rogue, includes 64-bit Windows support and upgraded rainbow tables.
- Details on potential additional new features, and pricing have not yet been released but you can bet that it will be better than Symantec’s.
There’s a special session on the return of L0phtCrack scheduled for Thursday March 12 at SOURCE Boston.
Symantec quietly discontinued sales and support for L0phtCrack in 2006 out of concerns that it violated cryptography export controls.
L0phtCrack was a popular tool used to identify and remediate security vulnerabilities that result from the use of weak or easily guessed passwords. It was also used to recover Windows and Unix account passwords to access user and administrator accounts whose passwords are lost or to streamline migration of users to newer authentication systems.
It was originally produced by the L0pht, the Boston-based security research group founded by Peiter “Mudge” Zatko and Chris “Weld Pond” Wysopal.
Ryan Naraine is a journalist and security evangelist at Kaspersky Lab. He manages Threatpost.com, a security news portal. Here is Ryan's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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