Intelligence Brief: At a Glance


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Initial Engagement: Installation & Verification


Before any operation, you must ensure the tool is correctly installed and accessible. These initial steps verify the environment and provide a baseline understanding of the tool's capabilities.


Objective: Verify if bruteforce-luks is Installed


Bash

which bruteforce-luks

/usr/bin/bruteforce-luks


Objective: Install bruteforce-luks on a Debian-based System


Bash

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y bruteforce-luks

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  bruteforce-luks
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 16.8 kB of archives.
After this operation, 47.1 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://kali.download/kali kali-rolling/main amd64 bruteforce-luks amd64 1.4.0-1 [16.8 kB]
Fetched 16.8 kB in 1s (22.2 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package bruteforce-luks.
(Reading database ... 312543 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../bruteforce-luks_1.4.0-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking bruteforce-luks (1.4.0-1) ...
Setting up bruteforce-luks (1.4.0-1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.10.2-1) ...


Objective: Display the Help and Options Menu


Bash

bruteforce-luks --help

bruteforce-luks 1.4.0

Usage: bruteforce-luks [options] <path to LUKS volume>

Options:
  -b <string>  Beginning of the password.
                 default: ""
  -e <string>  End of the password.
                 default: ""
  -f <file>    Read the passwords from a file instead of generating them.
  -h           Show help and quit.
  -l <length>  Minimum password length (beginning and end included).
                 default: 1
  -m <length>  Maximum password length (beginning and end included).
                 default: 8
  -s <string>  Password character set.
                 default: "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU
                           VWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
  -t <n>       Number of threads to use.
                 default: 1
  -v <n>       Print progress info every n seconds.
  -w <file>    Restore the state of a previous session if the file exists,
               then write the state to the file regularly (~ every minute).

Sending a USR1 signal to a running bruteforce-luks process
makes it print progress info to standard error and continue.


Tactical Operations: Core Commands & Use-Cases


This section details the practical application of bruteforce-luks through a comprehensive set of examples. Each scenario is designed to demonstrate a specific feature or combination of features for authorized password recovery. All operations assume you are working on a LUKS volume image named encrypted.dd that you have legal authorization to access.


Group 1: Basic Brute-Force Attacks


These examples cover fundamental brute-force attempts using varying lengths and character sets.


Objective: Basic Numeric Brute-Force (1-4 Digits)


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 1 -m 4 -s "0123456789" /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: 1984


Objective: Lowercase Alphabet Brute-Force (Length 5)


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 5 -m 5 -s "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: p@ssw


Objective: Uppercase Alphabet Brute-Force (Length 3-4)


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 3 -m 4 -s "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password not found.


Objective: Alphanumeric Brute-Force (Default settings)


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: Test1


Objective: Brute-Force with a Custom Special Character Set


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 4 -m 6 -s "abc!@#$" /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: a@#c

(...Examples 6-15 covering more combinations of basic brute-force...)


Group 2: Mask Attacks


Mask attacks are highly efficient when parts of the password are known.


Objective: Known Prefix Attack


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -b "Company202" -l 11 -m 12 -s "0123456789" /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: Company2025


Objective: Known Suffix Attack


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -e "!#" -l 6 -m 8 -s "abcdef" /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: facade!#


Objective: Known Prefix and Suffix Attack


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -b "pass" -e "word" -l 8 -m 8 -s "123" /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: password


Objective: Mask Attack with Special Characters in Prefix


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -b 'Start$' -l 6 -m 7 -s "01" /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: Start$1

(...Examples 20-30 covering more complex mask attack variations...)


Group 3: Dictionary Attacks


These attacks use a pre-compiled list of words instead of generating them.


Objective: Basic Dictionary Attack


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -f /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: princess


Objective: Custom Dictionary Attack


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -f ./custom_wordlist.txt /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: FluffyTheCat123


Objective: Dictionary Attack on a Non-Existent File


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -f ./no_such_file.txt /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Error: unable to open the password file.

(...Examples 34-40 covering more dictionary attack scenarios...)


Group 4: Performance and Session Management


These examples focus on optimizing the attack and managing long-running sessions.


Objective: Multi-Threaded Brute-Force


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 6 -m 6 -t 4 /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Password found: pass12


Objective: Periodic Progress Verbosity


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 8 -m 8 -t 4 -v 10 /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

(Fri Aug 15 18:40:00 2025) progress: 0.01%, 5432 k/s, last password: Aaaaaa9Z
(Fri Aug 15 18:40:10 2025) progress: 0.02%, 5450 k/s, last password: AaaabDk4
(Fri Aug 15 18:40:20 2025) progress: 0.03%, 5448 k/s, last password: AaaacVbT
...


Objective: Save and Resume a Session


Command (initial run):

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 9 -m 10 -t 8 -w session.state /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

(Fri Aug 15 19:00:00 2025) progress: 0.001%, 10245 k/s, last password: aaaaaaaab
^C

Command (to resume):

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 9 -m 10 -t 8 -w session.state /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

--> Expected Output (on resume):

Restoring session from file...
(Fri Aug 15 19:05:00 2025) progress: 0.001%, 10255 k/s, last password: aaaaaaaaz
...


Objective: On-Demand Progress with USR1 Signal


Setup: First, start a long-running process in the background.

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 10 -m 10 /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd &

Command Breakdown:

[1] 12345

Command (in the same terminal):

Bash

sleep 15 && kill -USR1 12345

Command Breakdown:

(Fri Aug 15 19:10:15 2025) progress: 0.0002%, 1301 k/s, last password: AaaaaaaaaS

(...Examples 45-70+ covering all remaining combinations of options, error states like targeting invalid files, permission denied errors, etc...)


Strategic Campaigns: Advanced Command Chains


The true power of command-line tools is realized when they are combined. Chaining bruteforce-luks with other utilities allows for dynamic and highly customized attack workflows.


Objective: Generate and Pipe a Custom Wordlist with crunch


Command:

Bash

crunch 8 8 0123456789 -o START | bruteforce-luks -f /dev/stdin /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Ethical Context & Use-Case: This command chain is immensely powerful and memory-efficient. Instead of first generating a potentially massive dictionary file and saving it to disk, crunch generates passwords on the fly and pipes them directly to bruteforce-luks. This is ideal for scenarios where the character set and length are known, but the resulting dictionary would be too large to store. This must only be used on volumes you are explicitly authorized to test.

--> Expected Output:

Crunch will now generate the following amount of data: 800000000 bytes
100000000 lines
Crunch will now generate characters up to the given length.
Password found: 13374269


Objective: Find and Attack a LUKS Volume within a Directory Tree


Command:

Bash

find /mnt/casestorage/ -type f -name "*.dd" -exec bruteforce-luks -f /usr/share/wordlists/fasttrack.txt -t 4 {} \;

Command Breakdown:

Ethical Context & Use-Case: In a large-scale digital forensics case, an analyst might be presented with a hard drive containing numerous disk images. This command automates the process of locating every potential evidence file (.dd) and launching a dictionary attack against it. It's a significant time-saver that automates a repetitive but necessary task. Permission to access and analyze the entire /mnt/casestorage/ directory is an absolute prerequisite.

--> Expected Output:

Password found: password123
Password not found.
Password not found.
Password found: 123456


Objective: Monitor Attack Progress in a Separate Log File


Command:

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 8 -m 8 -t 4 -v 5 /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd 2> progress.log & BG_PID=$! && tail -f progress.log

Command Breakdown:

Ethical Context & Use-Case: This separates the attack process from its monitoring. The analyst can start a very long attack, log its progress to a file for auditing and review, and monitor it in real-time without cluttering the main terminal. This allows them to perform other tasks in the primary terminal while keeping an eye on the attack's status. It's a clean and professional way to manage long-running operations.

--> Expected Output:

(Fri Aug 15 19:30:05 2025) progress: 0.01%, 8192 k/s, last password: AaaabCde
(Fri Aug 15 19:30:10 2025) progress: 0.02%, 8201 k/s, last password: AaaacFgh
(Fri Aug 15 19:30:15 2025) progress: 0.03%, 8199 k/s, last password: AaaadIjk
... (the output will continue to stream until the process ends or is stopped)


AI Augmentation: Integrating with Artificial Intelligence


Leveraging AI, particularly through scripting with Python, can transform a standard recovery attempt into an intelligent, context-aware operation. This involves pre-processing data to create smarter wordlists or post-processing logs for better analysis.


Objective: Generate an Intel-Driven Wordlist with Python


Scenario: An investigator has gathered intelligence about a target: the company is "AcmeCorp", the target's dog is named "Sparky", and their birth year is 1990. A Python script can generate a highly targeted wordlist based on this.

Command (Python Script - intelligent_wordlist.py):

Python

import itertools

# --- Intelligence Gathered ---
base_words = ["acmecorp", "sparky", "password", "admin"]
numbers = ["1990", "2024", "123", "1"]
specials = ["!", "@", "#", "$"]
leet_map = {'a': '@', 'o': '0', 'e': '3', 'i': '1'}

# --- Generation Logic ---
final_list = set()

# 1. Base words with number suffixes
for word in base_words:
    for num in numbers:
        final_list.add(word + num)
        final_list.add(word.capitalize() + num)

# 2. Base words with special char suffixes
for word in base_words:
    for char in specials:
        final_list.add(word + char)
        final_list.add(word.capitalize() + char)

# 3. Leetspeak variations
for word in base_words:
    leet_word = "".join(leet_map.get(char, char) for char in word)
    final_list.add(leet_word)
    final_list.add(leet_word.capitalize())

# --- Output to file ---
with open("ai_generated_list.txt", "w") as f:
    for item in sorted(list(final_list)):
        f.write(item + "\n")

print("Generated ai_generated_list.txt successfully.")

Command (Execution Chain):

Bash

python3 intelligent_wordlist.py && bruteforce-luks -f ai_generated_list.txt /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd

Command Breakdown:

Ethical Context & Use-Case: This represents a significant leap from using generic dictionaries. By programmatically combining and mutating case-specific intelligence, an analyst can create a small but extremely high-probability password list. This "AI-assisted" approach respects the target's context, drastically cutting down recovery time compared to blind brute-force and increasing the chances of success. This must only be based on legally obtained information for an authorized investigation.

--> Expected Output:

Generated ai_generated_list.txt successfully.
Password found: @cmecorp1990


Objective: Analyze and Visualize Attack Speed with Python and Pandas


Scenario: An attack has been running for an hour, logging progress to progress.log. An analyst wants to analyze this data to check for performance consistency and estimate the time to completion.

Command (Prerequisite: Run the attack and log output):

Bash

bruteforce-luks -l 9 -m 9 -t 8 -v 1 /mnt/evidence/encrypted.dd 2> progress.log

(After letting it run, stop it and run the analysis script.)

Command (Python Analysis Script - analyze_log.py):

Python

import pandas as pd
import re
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

log_file = 'progress.log'
data = []

# Regex to parse the progress line
# Example: (Fri Aug 15 20:00:05 2025) progress: 0.01%, 12345 k/s, last password: AaaaaaBcd
log_pattern = re.compile(r".*progress: ([\d.]+)%, ([\d.]+) k/s,.*")

with open(log_file, 'r') as f:
    for line in f:
        match = log_pattern.match(line)
        if match:
            percent = float(match.group(1))
            speed = float(match.group(2))
            data.append({'percent_complete': percent, 'speed_kps': speed})

if not data:
    print("No progress data found in log file.")
    exit()

df = pd.DataFrame(data)

# --- Analysis ---
average_speed = df['speed_kps'].mean()
print("--- Performance Analysis ---")
print(f"Average Speed: {average_speed:.2f} k/s")
print(f"Max Speed: {df['speed_kps'].max():.2f} k/s")
print(f"Min Speed: {df['speed_kps'].min():.2f} k/s")

# --- Visualization ---
df['speed_kps'].plot(kind='line', title='Attack Speed Over Time (k/s)')
plt.xlabel("Time (in intervals)")
plt.ylabel("Keys per Second (k/s)")
plt.grid(True)
plt.savefig('speed_chart.png')
print("\nGenerated speed_chart.png for visual analysis.")

Command (Execution):

Bash

python3 analyze_log.py

Command Breakdown:

Ethical Context & Use-Case: Forensic operations require meticulous documentation and reporting. This AI-augmented approach allows an analyst to move beyond simple monitoring. By analyzing performance data, they can detect potential hardware throttling, assess the efficiency of their thread count, and create professional charts for inclusion in their final report. This adds a layer of empirical analysis and professionalism to the recovery effort.

--> Expected Output:

--- Performance Analysis ---
Average Speed: 12451.34 k/s
Max Speed: 12510.88 k/s
Min Speed: 12398.45 k/s

Generated speed_chart.png for visual analysis.
[VISUAL OUTPUT: A line graph titled "Attack Speed Over Time (k/s)". The x-axis is "Time (in intervals)" and the y-axis is "Keys per Second (k/s)". The line shows minor fluctuations around the 12450 k/s mark, indicating stable performance.]


Legal & Ethical Disclaimer


The information presented in this article is for educational purposes only. The tools, techniques, and methodologies described are intended for use in legally authorized and ethical contexts, such as professional penetration testing, digital forensics, and information security auditing, where explicit, written permission has been granted by the system owner.

Unauthorized attempts to access or decrypt data on systems you do not own or have permission to test constitute a serious crime in most jurisdictions. The author, course creator, and hosting platform bear no responsibility or liability for any individual's misuse of this information. The user assumes all responsibility for their actions. Always act in a professional, ethical, and legal manner.