June 14, 2010

John the Ripper version 1.7.6 is out. This is a development version adding generic crypt(3) support (e.g., to be used for "SHA-crypt" and SunMD5 hashes), optional partial parallelization with OpenMP (of the new generic crypt(3) code on Linux and Solaris and of John's optimized code for the OpenBSD-style Blowfish-based crypt(3) hashes), more optimal DES S-box expressions for PowerPC with AltiVec, as well as making minor usability improvements and reworking the bitslice DES C source code. Please refer to the change log and the john-users announcement for more detail.

John the Ripper is free and Open Source software, distributed primarily in source code form. If you would rather use a commercial product tailored for your specific operating system, please consider John the Ripper Pro, which is distributed primarily in the form of "native" packages for the target operating systems and in general is meant to be easier to install and use while delivering optimal performance.