Basic Syntax

hashcat -m [hash mode] -a 0 [hash_file] /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt
-m: use hashid -m to get hashcat hash mode
-a: Attack mode - 0=dictionary (default)

Options

Hashcat

Option	Description
-m [type]	Hash mode
-a [mode]	Attack mode. 0: dictionary, 3: mask
-r [rule_file]	Rules file
--show	Show cracked hashes
-o [output_file]	Save output

Rule based attack

hashcat -m [hash type] -a 0 [hash file] /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt -r /usr/share/hashcat/rules/best66.rule

Placeholders

Placeholder	Character Set
?l	Lowercase letters (a-z)
?u	Uppercase letters (A-Z)
?d	Digits (0-9)
?s	Special characters
?a	All printable ASCII

Eg: Summer2026! would be ?u?l?l?l?l?l?d?d?d?d?s

Mask attack

hashcat -m 0 -a 3 [hash file] '?l?l?l?l?l?l?l?l'