pdf2john

A modern refactoring of the legacy pdf2john.py library, aimed at making the code easier to read and maintain.

Install

Install dependencies using Homebrew

brew bundle

Create a virtual environment and install Python dependencies

pyenv virtualenv 3.11.4 pdf2john
pyenv shell pdf2john
poetry install --only main

Usage

To pass the hash to john:

pdf2john example.pdf >> .hash
john .hash
john --show --format=PDF .hash

If you don't want to use poetry, you can run pdf2john as a standalone script:

git clone https://github.com/benjamin-awd/pdf2john.git
cd pdf2john && pip install -r requirements.txt
./src/pdf2john/pdf2john.py example.pdf >> .hash

Features

• Responsibility for PDF parsing and handling has been delegated to pyHanko (a crytography focused fork of PyPDF2)
• CICD workflow that tests pdf2john against PDFs ranging from Security Handler Revision 2 -> 6
• Removal of legacy Python 2.x support
• An optional debugging flag that shows the encryption dictionary of a PDF
• Readability improvements (a general attempt to be more Pythonic)

Troubleshooting

To access the encryption dictionary:

./pdf2john.py tests/pdf/pypdf/r6-user-password.pdf --debug

Acknowledgement

This repository was based on the original pdf2john.py by Shane Quigley