It’s available on most platform, you can even download virtual machines and containers. You can download Kali Linux from the official website ( on this page). It’s a Debian-based Linux distribution, including all the tools for pen-testers (network scan, vulnerability analysis, password recovery, wireless attacks, etc.). If you don’t have Kali Linux yet, the first step will be to install it on your computer. In this tutorial, I’m using Kali Linux, a distribution built for hacking and pen-testing, but you can use John on any other system if you prefer, the examples I give later will work the same way. You can either download the source code and compile it, or use a release package for your system or distribution. John The Ripper is an open-source password recovery tool, and is available on all operating systems and distributions.
