Rejecting candidates under X characters while using rules set?

[aprizm]

well technically they are encoding the password candidate first so yeah we know the length before its even cracked.

theres a rule that might help you :

Rules used to reject plains
Name Function Description Example Rule Note
Reject less <N Reject plains if their length is greater than N <G *
Reject greater >N Reject plains if their length is less or equal to N >8 *

https://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?id=rule_based_attack