Free NTLM Hash Generator - Online NTLM Hashing Tool

Quickly generate NTLM hashes online for free – a fast and accurate tool for security professionals and system administrators.

⚠️ Security Notice: NTLM hashes are for educational and testing purposes only. Never use this for unauthorized access to systems.

About NTLM Hashes

NTLM (NT LAN Manager) is a suite of Microsoft security protocols used for authentication in Windows environments.

NTLM hashes are MD4 hashes of the UTF-16 encoded password, commonly used in penetration testing and security audits.

Enter password to hash:

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Output in uppercase

NTLM Hash:

In the complex world of cybersecurity and network administration, understanding legacy authentication protocols is just as important as implementing modern ones. The NT LAN Manager (NTLM) protocol, while largely superseded, still lingers in many corporate environments. For security professionals, system administrators, and digital forensics investigators, the ability to work with NTLM password hashes is a critical skill. Our online NTLM Hash Generator is a specialized cryptographic utility designed to do just that.

This tool provides an instant, accurate, and secure way to compute the NTLM hash of any password. It’s an indispensable resource for penetration testing, security auditing, and educational purposes, allowing technical professionals to analyze and understand a cornerstone of Windows authentication history without the need for complex local environments.

What is an NTLM Hash Generator?

An NTLM Hash Generator is a tool that takes a plain text password and converts it into its corresponding NTLM hash. This hash is a 32-character hexadecimal string that represents a one-way mathematical transformation of the password. NTLM (NT LAN Manager) is a suite of security protocols that was once the default for authentication in Microsoft Windows operating systems. When a user set a password on an older Windows machine, the system didn’t store the password itself; instead, it stored this NTLM hash in a secure database called the Security Account Manager (SAM).

The process of creating an NTLM hash is specific and standardized:

The password string is first encoded into a specific format (UTF-16 Little-Endian).
The powerful, yet now outdated, MD4 (Message Digest 4) hashing algorithm is then applied to this encoded string.
The result is a 128-bit (16-byte) hash, which is always represented as a 32-character hexadecimal string. For example, the password Password123 produces the NTLM hash 01dfae6e3df42145a794c449c2e3a516.

It’s crucial to understand that NTLM is a legacy protocol with significant security vulnerabilities. Modern Windows environments have moved to the much more secure Kerberos protocol for authentication. Therefore, the primary use of an NTLM Hash Generator today is not for building new, secure systems, but for testing, analyzing, and managing older ones.

Real-Life and Technical Use Cases

The application of this tool is highly specific and targeted toward technical professionals:

Penetration Testing (Ethical Hacking): Security professionals often perform “Pass the Hash” (PtH) attacks during an engagement. In a PtH attack, an attacker who has obtained the NTLM hash of a user’s password can use the hash itself to authenticate to other systems on the network, without ever needing to know the original plaintext password. A penetration tester would use an NTLM Hash Generator to create hashes for use in their testing frameworks to check if a network is vulnerable to this type of attack.
Digital Forensics and Incident Response: After a system compromise, a forensic investigator might recover NTLM hashes from the system’s SAM file. They can use a generator in conjunction with password cracking tools (like Hashcat or John the Ripper) to run lists of common passwords through the NTLM algorithm, comparing the generated hashes to the recovered ones to identify the original passwords.
System Administration in Legacy Environments: A system administrator might be responsible for maintaining an older application or service that still requires NTLM authentication for interoperability. They may need to generate an NTLM hash manually to configure a service account or troubleshoot an authentication issue.
Cybersecurity Education: There is no better way to teach students about the evolution of authentication protocols and the importance of strong hashing algorithms than by demonstrating the weaknesses of older ones. An educator can use this tool to show how quickly simple passwords can be turned into hashes and then cracked using rainbow tables, contrasting it with modern, salted hashing algorithms.

Why Use an NTLM Hash Generator?

While it’s possible to generate NTLM hashes using command-line tools or custom scripts, a dedicated online tool provides a far more efficient and convenient solution for professionals who need a quick and reliable result.

Improves Workflow and Saves TimeFor a penetration tester in the middle of an engagement, speed is critical. Needing to generate a quick NTLM hash for a tool or script can be a workflow interruption if they have to look up commands or set up a virtual machine. This online tool provides the hash instantly, allowing them to stay focused on the task at hand.
Works Online Without InstallationThis is a free NTLM hash calculator that runs entirely in your browser. There is no need to install specialized security suites, Python libraries, or Windows-specific tools. This makes it a universally accessible utility for any security professional, regardless of their operating system (Linux, macOS, or Windows).
Optimized for Speed and ConvenienceThe user experience is designed for a single purpose: to generate an NTLM hash as quickly as possible. The interface is clean and simple, with no unnecessary steps. You paste your password, click a button, and copy the result.
Essential for Security Auditing and TestingFor security professionals, this is not just a convenience; it’s a critical component of their toolkit. It allows for the accurate simulation of specific threats and provides the necessary data to test an organization’s defenses against legacy attacks.
Boosts Productivity for Security ProfessionalsBy automating the hash generation process, the tool removes a small but frequent roadblock in security testing and forensic analysis. This seemingly minor time-saving adds up over the course of a project, allowing professionals to be more productive and efficient.

How to Use the NTLM Hash Generator Tool

Our tool is designed for simplicity and accuracy. You can generate an NTLM hash in three easy steps.

Step 1 – Enter the Password String

Type or paste the password that you want to hash into the input text area. The tool will treat the input exactly as provided.

Step 2 – Click the “Generate” Button

Once your password is in the input box, simply click the “Generate NTLM Hash” button. The tool will instantly execute the NTLM hashing algorithm on your input string.

Step 3 – Copy the NTLM Hash

The 32-character hexadecimal NTLM hash will immediately appear in the output box. You can then use the convenient “Copy” button to grab the hash for use in your security tools, scripts, or reports.

Features of Our NTLM Hash Generator Tool

Our NTLM Hash Generator is built to provide a reliable, fast, and secure experience for technical users.

100% Free and Web-Based: This critical security utility is available for free, without any subscriptions or limitations.
No Registration or Login Needed: We provide immediate and anonymous access to the tool.
Instant and Accurate Calculation: The tool precisely implements the standard NTLM hashing algorithm (UTF-16 LE encoding followed by MD4 hashing) to provide a correct hash every time.
Works on All Devices: The tool is fully responsive, working perfectly on desktops, tablets, and smartphones, making it ideal for use in the field.
Privacy-Focused: Security and privacy are paramount. The entire hashing process is performed locally in your browser (client-side). The password you enter is never transmitted to our servers, ensuring it remains confidential.

Who Can Benefit from an NTLM Hash Generator?

The audience for this tool is highly specialized and focused on cybersecurity and IT infrastructure.

Penetration Testers and Ethical Hackers: This is a primary tool for security assessment professionals who need to test for vulnerabilities related to legacy Windows authentication, such as Pass the Hash.
System Administrators: Particularly those managing mixed environments with older systems or applications that require NTLM for backward compatibility.
Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) Professionals: They use it to analyze and crack password hashes recovered from compromised Windows systems during an investigation.
Cybersecurity Students and Educators: It serves as a perfect hands-on tool for demonstrating how hashing algorithms work and for teaching the history of Windows security and its weaknesses.
Red Team Members: They use it to simulate the actions of real-world adversaries, which often involves leveraging legacy protocols like NTLM to move laterally through a network.

Plaintext Passwords vs. NTLM Hashes – Comparison Table

This table clarifies the different roles and security implications of storing passwords in plaintext versus as NTLM hashes.

Feature	Plaintext Passwords (Input)	NTLM Hashes (Output)
Purpose	For a user to input during authentication.	A one-way representation of the password used for storage and network authentication challenges.
Security	Completely insecure. If a database of plaintext passwords is stolen, all accounts are immediately compromised.	Insecure by modern standards, but was designed to be more secure than plaintext. It’s vulnerable to modern attacks.
Reversibility	Not applicable.	Designed to be one-way (non-reversible), but due to its simplicity and lack of salt, it is vulnerable to cracking via rainbow tables and brute-force attacks.
Use Case	Should only exist ephemerally as the user types it. It should never be stored.	Stored in the Windows SAM file on older systems. Used in legacy authentication protocols.

Tools You May Find Useful

Understanding the NTLM Hash Generator is a gateway to the broader world of cryptography and data security. Our suite of online tools can help you explore these related concepts.

The NTLM hash is just one type of cryptographic hash. To see how it compares to more modern and secure algorithms, you can use our SHA256 Generator. You will immediately notice that the output is much longer and more complex. NTLM’s direct predecessor was the LM hash, and it shares weaknesses with other outdated algorithms like MD5. You can explore this with our MD5 Hash Generator.

All of these hashes are represented as hexadecimal strings. To better understand this format, our String to Hex Converter and Hex to String Converter are excellent educational tools.

The entire purpose of hashing passwords is to protect them. The other half of this equation is using a password that is difficult to guess in the first place. Our Password Generator is the perfect tool for creating strong, random passwords that make dictionary and brute-force attacks against their hashes much more difficult.

For developers working with security protocols, data is often encoded for transmission in formats like Base64. You can see how this works with our Text to Base64 Converter. Finally, to explore the fundamental building blocks of all this data, you can use our String to Binary Converter to see how any piece of text is ultimately represented as 0s and 1s. This ecosystem of tools provides a comprehensive platform for exploring the worlds of data representation and cryptography.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is NTLM and why is it considered insecure?

NTLM (NT LAN Manager) is a legacy Microsoft authentication protocol. It is considered insecure for several reasons, but primarily because: 1) It’s based on the outdated MD4 hashing algorithm, which has known cryptographic weaknesses. 2) It does not use “salting,” which means the same password will always produce the same hash, making it highly vulnerable to pre-computed “rainbow table” attacks.

What is a “Pass the Hash” (PtH) attack?

A “Pass the Hash” attack is a technique where an attacker steals a user’s hashed password from a system and uses that hash to authenticate to other systems on a network. Since NTLM and other older protocols can use the hash itself for authentication challenges, the attacker doesn’t need to crack the hash to find the original password.

Is NTLM the same as Net-NTLM?

No, they are different but related. The NTLM hash is what is stored on a local machine in the SAM file. The Net-NTLM hash (also known as the NTLMv1 or NTLMv2 hash) is a different hash generated during a network authentication “challenge-response” process. While related, they are not the same and are used in different contexts.

What has replaced NTLM in modern Windows environments?

The primary authentication protocol in modern Windows Active Directory environments is Kerberos. It is a much more secure, ticket-based authentication system that is not vulnerable to Pass the Hash attacks and uses stronger cryptography.

Is it safe to use an online NTLM hash generator?

Yes, as long as the tool performs the hashing on the client side. Our NTLM Hash Generator does all its calculations directly in your browser. The password you enter is never sent across the internet to our servers, ensuring it remains confidential on your machine.

Can you reverse an NTLM hash?

Hashing algorithms are designed to be one-way functions, meaning you cannot mathematically “reverse” a hash to get the original password. However, because of the weaknesses in NTLM, hashes can often be “cracked” by guessing common passwords, hashing them, and comparing the results, or by using pre-computed rainbow tables.