---
name: "cowpatty"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "cowpatty"
version: "4.8-3+b2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/cowpatty"
---

# cowpatty(1)

Brute-force dictionary attack against WPA-PSK

## NAME

cowpatty - Brute-force dictionary attack against WPA-PSK

## DESCRIPTION

Implementation of an offline dictionary attack against WPA/WPA2 networks using PSK-based authentication (e.g. WPA-Personal)

## SYNOPSIS

 **cowpatty** **\< -d \| -r \>** \< *HASH-FILE* \| *CAPTURE-FILE* \> **-f** *WORDLIST* **-s** *SSID*

## OPTIONS

- **-f**

  Dictionary file

- **-d**

  Hash file (genpmk)

- **-r**

  Packet capture file

- **-s**

  Network SSID (enclose in quotes if SSID includes spaces)

- **-c**

  Check for valid 4-way frames, does not crack

- **-h**

  Print this help information and exit

- **-v**

  Print verbose information (more **-v** for more verbosity)

- **-V**

  Print program version and exit

## AUTHOR

cowpatty was developed Joshua Wright \<jwright@hwillhackforsushi.com\>.

This manual page was written by Samuel Henrique \<samueloph@debian.org\> for the Debian project, it was based on **cowpatty -h** output and can be used by other projects as well.

## SEE ALSO

**[genpmk(1)](/genpmk/1.md)**\
 **[aircrack-ng(1)](/aircrack-ng/1.md)**\
 **[airodump-ng(1)](/airodump-ng/1.md)**\
 **[airmon-ng(1)](/airmon-ng/1.md)**\
 **[wifite(1)](/wifite/1.md)**