rockyou.txt Wordlist: Step-by-Step Guide to Extract in Kali Linux

The first thing that springs to mind when we think of brute-forcing a login with word lists is rockyou.txt. There is a lot of discussion on the internet regarding rockyou.txt being the most frequent file used by hackers and crackers for extracting passwords. The intriguing aspect about this is that ethical hackers may use it to compromise the security of any web application. In this article, we are going to discover how to extract rockyou.txt.gz. But first, we must determine what rockyou.txt is.

What Is Rockyou.txt

rockyou.txt is a plain text file which contains a list of are commonly employed password words. This file contains over 14,341,564 previously disclosed passwords from data breaches. This file is widely used in web application brute force or dictionary assaults.

Anyone who wants to hack an account can use rocksyou.txt to execute a dictionary attack on the password of the user account. This set of data is particularly interesting because it only contains the most widely used or leaked passwords.

As a result, it may be an excellent starting place for anybody interested in learning the art of hacking. rockyou.txt may be downloaded in a number of file formats, including ZIP and GZ. The GZ format, often known as a compressed archive format, will be the primary topic of this discussion.

How to Extract rockyou.txt.gz:

To extract the rockyou.txt.gz file, which appears to be a compressed text file, you can use a command-line tool like gzip or gunzip on Unix-based systems (Linux, macOS) or a similar tool like 7-Zip on Windows. Here are the steps for both platforms:

On Unix-based Systems (Linux, macOS):

1. Open a terminal window.
2. Navigate to the directory where the rockyou.txt.gz file is located using the cd command. For example: cd /usr/share/wordlists
3. Use the gunzip command to extract the file: gunzip rockyou.txt.gz If gunzip is not available, you can use gzip -d instead: gzip -d rockyou.txt.gz
4. After running the command, the compressed file will be extracted, and you’ll have a file named rockyou.txt in the same directory.

On Windows using 7-Zip:

1. Download and install 7-Zip if you don’t already have it. You can download it from the official website: https://www.7-zip.org/
2. Locate the rockyou.txt.gz file on your Windows system.
3. Right-click on the rockyou.txt.gz file, and in the context menu, select “7-Zip” and then choose “Extract Here” or “Extract to {folder name}” if you want to extract it to a specific folder.
4. 7-Zip will extract the file, and you will find a file named rockyou.txt in the same directory where the compressed file was located.

Now, you have successfully extracted the rockyou.txt file from the compressed rockyou.txt.gz file. You can use this text file as needed. Please note that the rockyou.txt file contains commonly used passwords and is often used for security testing and research purposes. Be responsible and ethical when using such data.