hashcat v7.0.0
#1

Welcome to hashcat v7.0.0!

Download binaries and source code from hashcat or from GitHub


We're proud to announce the release of hashcat v7.0.0, the result of over two years of development, hundreds of features and fixes, and a complete refactor of several key components. This version also includes all accumulated changes from the v6.2.x minor releases.

This release is huge. The full write-up is nearly 10,000 words, which exceeds what MyBB supports in a single post.

If you have 30 minutes, here's the writeup: Full Release Notes and detailed writeup

Here's a quick summary:
  • Over 900,000 lines of code changed
  • Contributions from 105 developers, including 74 first-time contributors
  • Merged and documented all previously unannounced 6.2.x features

Major New Features

  • Assimilation Bridge: Integrate external resources like CPUs, FPGAs, embedded interpreters, and more into the cracking pipeline.
  • Python Bridge Plugin: Rapidly implement hash-matching logic in Python. No recompilation needed, supports multithreading and rule engine by default.
  • Virtual Backend Devices: Internally partitions physical GPUs into multiple logical devices for better bridge integration and async workloads.
  • Hash-Mode Autodetection: Omit the -m flag and let Hashcat detect the hash-mode, or use --identify to list possibilities.
  • Docker Build Support: Build Hashcat in a fully containerized, cross-platform environment, including cross-compilation to Windows.

New Algorithm Support

  • 58 new application-specific hash types, including Argon2, MetaMask, Microsoft Online Account, SNMPv3, GPG, OpenSSH, and LUKS2
  • 17 new generic hash constructions used in real-world web apps and protocols
  • 11 new primitives added to the crypto library, improving reuse and plugin development
  • 20 new tools to extract hashes from popular sources, including APFS, Virtualbox, BitLocker, and various wallet formats

Performance Improvements

  • Complete refactor of the autotuning engine for better device utilization
  • Major rewrite of memory management to eliminate previous 4GB allocation caps and enable full memory usage across devices
  • Improved tuning for hash-modes like NTLM, NetNTLMv2, and RAR3
  • Updated tuning database entries and lower overhead for multi-device setups
  • Optimizations to several individual hash-modes including:
    • scrypt: up to +320 percent
    • RAR3: up to +54 percent
    • NetNTLMv2: +223 percent (Intel)


New and Updated Backends

  • HIP (AMD): First-class support for AMD's HIP backend, now preferred over OpenCL when both are available
  • Metal (Apple): Native GPU support on macOS using Metal, including full Apple Silicon compatibility and major speed improvements

Plugin and Developer Changes

  • Improved diagnostics, tokenizer control, and debugging options
  • New reusable infrastructure for integrating algorithms directly into both modules and kernels
  • Expanded test coverage, edge-case detection, and cross-platform compatibility improvements

Rule Engine Enhancements

  • Support for new character class logic and rejection rules, increasing rule engine flexibility
  • Refactored and cleaned up rule logic to improve reliability
  • Several commonly used rule files have been optimized and expanded

Additional Improvements

  • Mask engine now supports 8 custom charsets (-5 to -8)
  • Status screen improvements: better kernel info, new keybind support, improved quiet mode
  • New output formats: JSON support added to status and info commands
  • Improved benchmark defaults: better masks, longer duration, more consistent output
  • Updated 3rd-party dependencies and build fixes across all platforms
  • Added handling for compressed wordlists and better I/O error recovery
  • False-positive mitigation improvements across multiple formats

Bug Fixes

  • Resolved memory allocation and buffer size issues across backends
  • Fixed bugs in output handling, restore files, and mask parsing
  • Corrected behavior for complex attack modes under edge conditions
  • Fixed missing or broken hash extractions for multiple formats
  • Eliminated false negatives in rare multihash cases

Final Words


This release was made possible thanks to the work of the hashcat community. We appreciate the time, skill, and testing effort that went into it and especially from those submitting fixes, reporting bugs, and helping improve portability.

While some parts took longer than expected, we believe the result is worth the wait. We're excited to see what the community builds on top of it. If you run into any issues, let us know on GitHub or better yet, send a fix. Thanks for your continued support.

- atom
- matrix
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#2
Awesome to have it released, some great performance gains. I look forward to testing some of the brand new features.
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