Having the wordlists is only half the battle. Here are practical examples of how to use them with industry-standard tools.
This comprehensive guide covers how to locate the best wordlists on GitHub, download them efficiently, and install or organize them for popular security tools like Hashcat, John the Ripper, and Gobuster. 1. Top Wordlist Repositories on GitHub
Here are some popular wordlists on GitHub:
While wordlists are generally plain-text files rather than executable software, "installing" them usually means cloning the repository and organizing it within a system path for easy access. download install wordlist github
If you only need a single file, such as the famous rockyou.txt or a specific subdomain list, cloning a massive repository is inefficient. Navigate to the file on GitHub. Click the button in the top right of the file view. Copy the URL from your browser's address bar. Use wget or curl in your terminal: wget https://githubusercontent.com Use code with caution. Method C: Download a Specific Subfolder
Using the combined wordlist from the bruteforce-database repository:
Copy the URL of the raw text page (it will start with https://githubusercontent.com... ). Download it via wget or curl : wget https://githubusercontent.com Use code with caution. 3. Installing and Extracting Wordlists Having the wordlists is only half the battle
gobuster dir -u https://example.com -w /usr/share/wordlists/SecLists/Discovery/Web-Content/directory-list-2.3-medium.txt Use code with caution. Password Cracking (Hashcat)
If you have ever cracked a hash, you have likely encountered . This file contains approximately 14 million real passwords obtained from the 2009 data breach of the RockYou company, which stored passwords in plaintext. Its real-world data makes it incredibly effective for dictionary attacks and is included by default in the SecLists repository.
Many large wordlists on GitHub are compressed (zipped) to save space. For example, the rockyou.txt file Navigate to the file on GitHub
The absolute gold standard for security professionals. SecLists is a collection of multiple types of lists used during security assessments.
:If you only need a single file, such as the famous rockyou.txt , use wget with the "Raw" file URL: wget https://githubusercontent.com Use code with caution. Copied to clipboard
This script automatically installs SecLists, FuzzDB, Assetnote wordlists, dirsearch databases, Trickest wordlists, and even creates compatibility symlinks for tools expecting specific legacy paths. If rockyou.txt.tar.gz exists in SecLists, the script extracts it to the correct location.
: Subdomains, web technologies, API routes, and discovery paths.
git clone --depth 1 --single-branch https://github.com/USER/REPO.git