Password Cracking Library (PCL)
===============================

PCL was developed by Pavel Semjanov

version 2.0c - public release
Sep 04, 2000

Email: mailto:psw@ssl.stu.neva.ru?Subject=PCL
WWW:   http://www.password-crackers.com/pcl.html

Disclaimer
----------

I never thought I would release this code to the public, so please don't expect
many comments, excellent docs, great portability, etc. in this package. I release
this code AS IS; see license in license.txt file.


What is PCL?
------------

PCL is a portable standard C library which is very useful for password
crackers/password recovery software authors. The kernel of the PCL is
the password definition file (PDF), and it doesn't care about what type of 
application you're trying to crack the passwords of. PCL parses this file and 
generates passwords according the rules in PDF file.
These rules include:
- brute-force searching
- brute-force with known (static) chars searching
- dictionary attacks
- dictionary with modifiers attack
- misspelled passwords recovery

The PCL language for writing such rules is simple enough and it's described
in pcl.txt file.


How to make a PCL library ?
-------------------------

To make a PCL, type : 
   
    make

(check your cc options, I recommend using maximal optimization)

Currently this has been tested in Linux, MS-DOS, and the Windows environment.

To clean temporary files, type:

    make clean

To test your PCL, type:

    make test

That last command will compile the simplest example of a PCL.
To run it, rename one of the PDF files (currently they are english.def,
russian.def, spanish.def) to password.def.


How to use a PCL in a password cracker?
-------------------------------------

Generally, you should write only few simple functions like test, which
can test and determine the correct password.
These functions and the interface are described in PCL.H file
By linking with the PCL library, you'll get powerful password cracking
software.


Distribution
------------

PCL can be distributed freely. See license.txt. 


Getting PCL
----------- 

The latest version of PCL is available from:

  http://www.ssl.stu.neva.ru/psw/pcl.html
  http://www.password-crackers.com/pcl.html (mirror)


Feedback
--------

For general discussions, bug reports, ideas, patches,...:
mailto:psw@ssl.stu.neva.ru?Subject=PCL

If you make any changes in the PCL code, please let me know.
Also I'd like to get more language-specific PDF files, so if you 
create one, please don't forget to send me a copy!

If you can correct the machine-translated doc, you are also thanked.

I'll be glad to hear any ideas (especially about PCL language).
