Weird issue with hashcat v5.1.0

[john_alan]

you have not specified a mask, hence hashcat uses its default mask which does not include your password.

Thanks for the reply.

Check my update, it happily cracks:

"123"
"X123"


but fails when I move to "XM123" or anything larger.


Doesn't a raw brute force just iterate over all possible values?

What mask would I use?