With commands and tools
This document serves as a professional, end-to-end reference for identifying, parsing, and cracking cryptographic hashes and encodings encountered during penetration tests, CTFs, and practical exams (like the CPTS).
1. Deep Dive: The Bcrypt Hashing Algorithm
How to Identify Bcrypt
Bcrypt is an adaptive, salted cryptographic hash function based on the Blowfish cipher. In database dumps, a bcrypt hash is immediately recognizable by its structured layout, modular delimiters ($), and a fixed length of exactly 60 characters.
