How to create a custom dictionary

Dictionary Manager is a built-in tool for managing dictionaries and wordlists used by the Dictionary attack. The tool allows to compile custom dictionaries, sort, export, and import existing dictionaries, as well as edit, merge, and delete unnecessary dictionaries.

For previous versions of Passware Kit (2019.x and earlier), please review "Creating a Custom Dictionary" section.

NOTE: Initial text file for a custom dictionary should be in UCS2 (UTF-16) or UTF-8 encoding with BOM.

Using Dictionary Manager Tool

Password for file Capital.zip is a capital name. To recover this type of password, we will use the list of capitals as a custom dictionary file (capitals-dictionary.txt).

Such a list could be created manually as a text file or downloaded from wordlist resources. Learn more about Dictionaries from Passware Knowledge Base. 

1. On the Start page, click Tools and select Dictionary Manager:
   
2. At the Dictionary Manager window, click Add Dictionary and choose Compile from File…. Locate file txt (a custom list of capitals, which is supposed to be used as a dictionary) and click Next. Click Compile:
   
   

   Passware Tip: Use the Keep the original order of words option to import password lists sorted by the frequency of use and length, not alphabetically. It might be helpful when recovering passwords for file types with secure encryption.

3. Passware Kit compiles the text file into a dictionary named capitals-dictionary.txt.
   Click Done.
4. At the New Dictionary Attack settings, choose capitals-dictionary.txt from the Dictionary pulldown menu:

   

    Click Add Attack.

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For Passware Kit 2019.x and earlier:

Creating a Custom Dictionary

It is easy to create a dictionary file from any text or binary file (e.g. a memory image, hibernation or swap file). In order to compile your file into Passware Kit dictionary format (*.DIC), follow the steps below.

In our example, the password for file Capital.zip is a capital name. To recover this type of password, use a list of capitals as a custom dictionary file. Such a list could be created manually as a text file or downloaded from wordlist resources, for example, GitHub. 

1. On the Start page, click Recover File Password:

 2. Locate file Capital.zip and click Open.

3. Click Advanced: Customize Settings:

4. Passware Kit displays the settings of the default password recovery attacks. Click Remove All to clear the list and start with your own settings:

5. Click Add Attack…:

6. At the Dictionary Attack settings, choose Custom… from the Dictionary pulldown menu (different for Dictionary Manager):

7. At the Custom Dictionary Compiler window, click Browse…, locate either a txt file (a custom list of capitals, which is supposed to be used as a dictionary in our example) or a memory image binary file and click Open. Click Compile to proceed:

8. Passware Kit compiles the text file into a dictionary named Unfiltered-capitals-dictionary. Select this dictionary and click Add Attack

9. Click Recover to proceed with the custom settings:

10. Passware Kit recovers the password for the file using the custom dictionary:

Please note that older dictionaries (from previous Passware Kit versions) and additional Passware proprietary dictionaries in .DIC format can be added as follows:

In “Tools | Options | Folders | Additional Dictionaries Folders”, specify the location of the folder with the downloaded (and extracted) dictionary. It will be automatically added to the pull-down list of dictionaries when you set up a Dictionary attack.