Recover PDF file password in kali linux

At times it happens that you forget your Pdf file's password and the document is very important for you. In this situation the only option is to either you remember your password or bypass the Pdf password.
If you are using Kali linux then you must be aware of "John the ripper" tool.
Using this tool we are going to Recover Pdf file password.

Requirement : Kali linux , Internet connection, a password protected Pdf file.

Pdf file

As you can see I have Pdf file named "confidential" on the screen, but unfortunately i have forgotten it's password. So i am going to crack the password by John the ripper.

• STEP 1 :

Open your Kali Terminal and clone the below GitHub Link
https://github.com/magnumripper/JohnTheRipper.git
Command : git clone https://github.com/magnumripper/JohnTheRipper.git

git link for John the ripper

Press Enter and the installation will start. It will take sometime to download.

Installing John the ripper

Here, I have stopped the installation as i have already downloaded the tool.

• STEP 2 :

After installation, Navigate to your directory in terminal where you have downloaded your tool.
In my case I have downloaded it on Desktop.
After navigating to the directory.
Type : ls
It will show all the files and directories. Now you have to get inside your JohnThe Ripeer tool.
Type : cd JohnTheRipper
Now you will be inside JohnTheRipper direcorty
Type : ls
Now you can see different files, You have to navigate to run file.
Type : cd run
Now you will be inside run folder

John the ripper

Type :  ls
All the tools will show up on the screen.
We have to use pdf2john.pl tool. It is a Perl scripted tool that we are going to use.

Tools

Type  : ./pdf2john.pl  'Your pdf file path' > 'path for saving your hashes' 
In my case the command is :   ./pdf2john.pl '/root/Desktop/Confidential.pdf' > '/root/Desktop/password.txt'
Here : /root/Desktop/Confidential.pdf  is my pdf path
Here : /root/Desktop/password.txt  is path for saving my hashes

pdf2john.pl

Now a file will be created with hashes in it where you have saved it.

Hash file

• STEP 3:

After all this steps the final step is to crack the hash file through john the ripper tool using brute force method.
Type : john --format=pdf  'Hash file path'
In my case the command is : john --format=pdf  '/root/Desktop/password.txt'
Here : '/root/Desktop/password.txt' is my hash file path

Cracking hashes

After this command your part of job is done. John tools will conduct brute force attack on those hashes to crack.

Password cracked

As here you can see my password for the Pdf file is 123456.