Left To My Own Devices – Fast NTCracking in Rust

This post details the creation and optimization of a CPU-only Rust NT hash cracker (“ntcrack”) for an M1 Pro Mac, comparing it to hashcat and achieving higher throughput in certain scenarios by optimizing multithreading (crossbeam queues), file I/O (mmap via ripline), hash lookups (HashMap with NoHashHasher and prefix checks), UTF16/MD4 processing, and buffered stdout output; it also notes limitations, usage, and a nostalgic comparison to a 1997 LM “ntcrack,” and does not describe any specific security incident or threat activity.