Are you the sole developer of Cain & Abel or is there a team of contributors behind the project?

Actually, I'm the only one developer of the program. However, I received the support of many people both as regards the testing of functionality and suggestions for improvements. I must say a big thanks to all users of my forum for the incredible support they are continuously providing to newcomers.


What were the biggest challenges that you encountered during development?

I'll try to summarize the main difficulties I faced:

• My wife shouting to me while I was behind the computer instead of bringing her out for shopping.
• The deep knowledge of the operation of network protocols, encryption algorithms and security mechanisms used by IT systems.
• Mastering assembler code optimization techniques and the usage of MMX/SSE instructions to rise cracking speed.
• The fact I had limited resources to test the functionality of the program in terms of software, systems and network devices. Many features of the program have been developed trying to predict what would be their operation in real conditions, especially for what concerns the analysis of network traffic.
• Proper management of hijacked traffic to avoid denial of service conditions.
• The search for details and specifications of undocumented algorithms and functions by mean of the analysis of compiled, and sometimes undebuggable, code.

You are well known for constantly refining Cain & Abel as new versions come out quite frequently. What do users ask for most often, and what areas do you especially plan to improve in future versions?

As happens for any other program that performs exhaustive key searches, users keep asking for more speed. This involves the support of multiprocessor and 64-bit systems or the usage of graphic accelerator cards. The above features require a lot of programming time and, of course, the availability of appropriate hardware/software. Anyway, It was never my intention to create a program that was "the fastest", or able to crack passwords of any length; I am more interested in demonstrating the feasibility of being able to exploit a weakness to achieve a goal. The first thing I should do in the near future is to create a 64bit version of the software, solving possible compatibility problems. This could take a while but I'll do my best, time permitting.