Passware Kit Agent for Linux troubleshooting

Passware Kit Agent for Linux supports 64-bit systems only and uses GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) for hardware acceleration. Passware Kit Business and Forensic editions can connect Windows and Linux versions of Passware Kit Agents simultaneously, so all the hardware in the network environment is used effectively for password recovery processes. A portable version of Passware Kit Agent for Linux can be installed on a bootable Linux USB drive. It allows users to run the agent on any system without logging in and installing on the target computer.

NOTE: Passware Kit Agent for Linux is compatible with RHEL, Debian, and CentOS. Only Linux distributives with GNU C Library version 2.23 or newer are supported. No other distributives have been tested.

NOTE: Passware Kit Agent for Linux does not currently support password recovery for MS Money, BestCrypt, and MS Office files with third-party CSPs. Passware Kit Agent for Windows supports all file types.

Check the list of issues that might arise when you use the Passware Kit Agent for Linux:

1. Passware Kit Agent does not connect to Passware Kit server
2. Error: “libOpenCL.so not found” on the Agent launch
3. Error: “libgsf-1.so.114” on the agent.wrapper.sh launch
4. GPU cards on the Passware Kit Agent are not used
5. Error: “sendto failed with code -1 for char 13 and length 99”
6. Passware Kit Agent creates large core.xxx files

If your problem is not listed above, contact Support for assistance.

1. Passware Kit Agent does not connect to Passware Kit server

Please make sure that all the following conditions are fulfilled:

A: UDP port 10555 is open for the Agent.

B: Passware Kit Forensic (server) and Passware Kit Agent for Linux are of the same version. You can check the Agent version by using the following command:

./passware-kit-agent --version

C: The agent.conf file contains the settings specific for your network and has write permissions. Use the following command to check:

[General]
LogsFolder = /home/pw_logs

Passware Tip: If the problem persists, we recommend adding a definition file to firewalld for the Agent.

2. Error: “libOpenCL.so not found” on the Agent launch

If there is no /usr/lib/libOpenCL.so file, create one by using the following command:

~ $ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/OpenCL/vendors/amd/libOpenCL.so.1 /usr/lib/libOpenCL.so

Passware Tip: For CentOS, Fedora and RHEL install the ocl-icd-devel package to set up the libOpenCL.so library. The libOpenCL.so library is located at “/usr/lib64/” by default.

3. Error: “libgsf-1.so.114” on the agent.wrapper.sh launch

If the following error is shown on the launch of agent.wrapper.sh:

/home/passware/passware-kit-agent-64bit/passware-kit-agent: 
error while loading shared libraries: libgsf-1.so.114: cannot open shared object file: 
No such file or directory. Failure!

please install the libgsf-1.14.26 package.

4. GPU cards on the Passware Kit Agent are not used

First, check that the file type in question supports GPU acceleration:

https://support.passware.com/hc/en-us/articles/221742388

Then do the following:

Intel GPUs

Passware Tip: Intel drivers are not yet supported; however, you can try to turn them on using the following environmental variable:

export PASSWARE_OPENCL_VENDORS=Intel(R) Corporation

Intel;NVIDIA Corporation

Other names instead of Intel(R) Corporation might be Intel; Intel Inc.; NVIDIA Corporation; AuthenticAMD; Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

This should turn on the Intel GPU acceleration, but it might be unstable.

NVIDIA GPUs

NOTE: NVIDIA cards do not support SLI mode.

Make sure the latest proprietary drivers are installed.

NOTE: Open source drivers are not supported.

If necessary, install CUDA package using the following command (Ubuntu OS):

sudo apt update && apt dist-upgrade -y && reboot
lspci -v
sudo apt install -y ocl-icd-libopencl1 nvidia-cuda-toolkit
nvidia-smi
sudo reboot

Make sure the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable with the following path is added and install it:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib ./passware-kit-agent -l
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/your/custom/path/

Check if it has been installed successfully using the command below:

echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Passware Tip: Check out this article for setting up Linux OS variables.

AMD GPUs

Make sure that AMD GPUs are not used in Crossfire or mGPU mode as this is not supported by Passware Kit.

NOTE: AMD cards require proprietary drivers for flawless work.

5. Error: “sendto failed with code -1 for char 13 and length 99”

Such an error is shown on a Linux system without a default gateway or static route.

Make sure you have a default gateway set in your Linux system. Check out your distribution manual for this setting.

For example:

sudo ip route add default via 192.168.0.1

6. Passware Kit Agent creates large core.xxx files

Core.xxx files are files with a memory dump created by the operating system. These files should appear after some system errors and are important for error debugging. If the files use all the disk space, this may cause some technical issues; however, in most cases these files do not affect the system performance.

To restrict the size of such files, use the following command:

ulimit -c <max file size in KB>

Example: If the maximum file size is set to “0” (<ulimit -c 0>), the files will not be created.

The appearance of such files usually indicates that there are problems with Passware Kit Agents; for example, there might be issues with memory access during the password recovery process.

NOTE: The Core.xxx files are essential for troubleshooting technical issues; otherwise, there is no way to get the problem details.

If your problem is not listed above or the existing solutions do not work for you, please contact the Support for assistance. Make sure to provide detailed information, such as Passware Kit Agent log files and screenshots.

Passware Tip: Check out the Linux Agent in Amazon instances for more information about the capabilities of the Passware Kit Agent for Linux.