Explain the $HEX?

[Wirl]

Hello!

When Hashcat outputs something about $hex, should I be worried? I get it that it doesn't output the characters in the console due to character sets, what about actual matching with passwords or is this only for outputting to console?
I got a lot of Scandinavian characters in a wordlist that contains åäöÅÄÖ, will these still be used for cracking or do I need to use some sort of command? The wordlists are in UTF-8 , I guess it's the correct encoding?
Google is somewhat troublesome when it comes to indexing this forum and I've done a few searches about this here but only found really old threads. Sorry if the question has already been answered.

I'd appreciate some clarification though.


Thank you in advance!

[undeath]

I'm not sure I understand the question. The $HEX[] format is used on console and in the output file. It is ignorant of the encoding used. If you know (or can guess) the encoding used for a $HEX[] plaintext you can convert it into readable format externally.

Your wordlists will always be processed in the same manner, based on ancient hashcat philosophy: crap in - crap out. (unless you use the --encoding-from/--encoding-to options)

[atom]

Depending on your hashcat version the behaviour changes a bit. In the latest version if the password is a valid UTF8 password, it is displayed as it is. Only in case if the password is not a valid UTF8 character it is displayed as $HEX[...]. For example the 8 bit ISO-8859 encoding would be such a case.