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Abdeladim Fadheli · 5 min read · Updated sep 2025 ·Ethical Hacking ·PDF File Handling ·Cryptography ·Digital Forensics

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Let us assume that you got a password-protected PDF file and it's your top priority job to access it, but unfortunately, you overlooked the password. So, at this stage, you will look for an utmost way that can give you an instant result. In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

Brute force PDF files usingpikepdf library in Python.
Extract the PDF password hash and crack it usingJohn the Ripper utility.
Crack PDF password withiSeePassword Dr.PDF program.

To get started, install the required dependencies:

pip3 install pikepdf tqdm

Related: Build 35+ Ethical Hacking Scripts & Tools with Python EBook

Cracking PDF Password using pikepdf

pikepdf is a Python library that allows us to create, manipulate and repair PDF files. It provides a Pythonic wrapper around theC++ QPDF library.

We won't be usingpikepdf for that, though. We just gonna need to open the password-protected PDF file; if it succeeds, that means it's a correct password, and it'll raise aPasswordError exception otherwise:

import pikepdffrom tqdm import tqdm# load password listpasswords = [ line.strip() for line in open("wordlist.txt") ]# iterate over passwordsfor password in tqdm(passwords, "Decrypting PDF"):    try:        # open PDF file        with pikepdf.open("foo-protected.pdf", password=password) as pdf:            # Password decrypted successfully, break out of the loop            print("[+] Password found:", password)            break    except pikepdf._core.PasswordError as e:        # wrong password, just continue in the loop        continue

First, we load a password list fromwordlist.txt file in the current directory, get ithere. You can userockyou list or any other large wordlists as well.You can also use the Crunch tool to generate your own custom wordlist.

Next, we iterate over the list and try to open the file with each password, by passingpassword argument topikepdf.open() method, this will raisepikepdf._qpdf.PasswordError if it's an incorrect password.

We usedtqdm here just to print the progress on how many words are remaining. Check out my result:

Decrypting PDF:  43%|████████████████████████████████████████▏                                                   | 2137/5000 [00:06<00:08, 320.70it/s][+] Password found: abc123

The password was found after2137 trials, which took about 6 seconds. As you can see, it's going for about320 word/s; we'll see how to boost this rate.

Get: Build 35+ Ethical Hacking Scripts & Tools with Python EBook

Cracking PDF Password using John The Ripper

John the Ripper is a free and fast password-cracking software tool that is available on many platforms. However, we'll be using Kali Linux operating system here, as it already comes pre-installed.

First, we gonna need a way to extract the password hash from the PDF file to be suitable for cracking in john utility. Luckily for us, there is a Python scriptpdf2john.py that does that. Let's download it:

Downloading pdf2john.py Put your password-protected PDF in the current directory; mine is calledfoo-protected.pdf, and run the following command:

root@rockikz:~/pdf-cracking# python3 pdf2john.py foo-protected.pdf | sed "s/::.*$//" | sed "s/^.*://" | sed -r 's/^.{2}//' | sed 's/.\{1\}$//' > hash

This will extract the PDF password hash into a new file namedhash, here is my result:

Extracting PDF password hash using pdf2john After I saved the password hash intohash file, I usedcat command to print it to the screen.

Finally, we use this hash file to crack the password:

Password cracked successfully using john the ripper We simply use the command"john [hashfile]". As you can see, the password is012345 and was found with the speed of4503p/s.

Cracking PDF Password using iSeePassword Dr.PDF

Not all users are comfortable with coding in Python or using commands in Linux. So, if you're looking for an effective PDF password cracking program on Windows, theniSeePassword Dr.PDF is one of the best choices.

Importing PDF file

This PDF password cracking has an easy-to-understand UI so even the novices know how to use this program. Besides, it offers three powerful password cracking algorithms, includingDictionary,Brute-force, and Brute-force with Mask. You're free to set several types of parameters to boost the performance.

Password found image

Currently, the password cracking speed is up to 100K per second, making it one of the fastest programs for cracking PDF passwords.

Conclusion

So that's it, our job is done, and we have successfully cracked the PDF password using three methods:pikepdf, John The Ripper, and iSeePassword Dr.PDF. The first method takes a lot of time to break the password but is quite intuitive for Python programmers, whereas the other methods are the ultimate method to get the password of a PDF file in a short period of time. Make sure you use this for ethical and own use.

Finally, inour Ethical hacking with Python book, we have built 24 hacking tools (including password crackers) from scratch using Python. Make sure to check it outhere if you're interested!

Learn also: How to Brute Force ZIP File Passwords in Python.

Happy Cracking ♥

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