Which technology could be used to prevent a cracker from launching a dictionary or brute-force attack off a hash?

Similarities Both a dictionary and brute force attack are guessing attacks; they are not directly looking for a flaw or bypass. Either can be an offline attack or an online attack. An online attack tries automated routines providing input to a legitimate system. They are not looking to create an exploit in functionality, but to abuse expected functionality. An offline attack attempts to emulate the encryption/hashing and requires a known output of that process (i.e., you don't attack the system, you already have the hashed/encrypted password) Brute Force Attack Definition: Attempts to determine a secret by trying every possible combination. Qualities: • The number of attempts is limited by the maximum length and the number of characters to try per position (or byte if considering Unicode passwords) • The time to complete is greater, but there is greater coverage of likely cleartext value (all possibilities only if set to the maximum length and every possible character is considered in every position) Physical World Example: Given a combination lock which requires three numbers to be taken in sequence, you try every possible combination - e.g., First 1-2-3, then 1-2-4. Note, a brute force attack may not necessarily try all options in sequential order. An advanced brute force attack may make certain assumptions, e.g., complexity rules require uppercase, first character more likely to be upper than lower case). Dictionary Attack Definition: Typically a guessing attack which u...

What is brute force, and what are the different methods? In a basic brute force attack, hackers use automation tools to test random, exhaustive combinations of numbers and letters to try and guess your credentials. However, this isn’t the only way hackers use brute force password cracking to steal your information. Here are six more common ways hackers harness brute force methods. Brute force attacks can test millions of password/username, web address, or encryption key combinations. Manually testing all these combinations could take years, so attackers use tools to automate this process. Here are some of the most common tools used in brute force attacks: · • Aircrack-ng: Available for Windows and Linux, this tool is a popular choice for dictionary attacks. • John the Ripper: This free tool combines text and numbers to perform simple brute force attacks or can be used with a dictionary to perform dictionary attacks. • 0phtCrack: Meant specifically for cracking Windows passwords, this tool can crack a password in only a few minutes. • RainbowCrack: This tool generates rainbow tables to use in rainbow table attacks. • Hydra: One of the most popular brute force tools, Hydra is often used in cracking passwords for network authentication. Brute force attacks often target popular platforms where many users store data. This means email domains, online tax services, or food apps could be likely targets. Here are just a few real-world examples of brute force attacks in action: • 20...

Dictionary attack definition A dictionary attack is a brute-force technique where attackers run through common words and phrases, such as those from a dictionary, to guess passwords. The fact people often use simple, easy-to-remember passwords across multiple accounts means dictionary attacks can be successful while requiring fewer resources to execute. “A dictionary attack is a type of What’s the difference between dictionary and brute-force attacks? Where traditional brute-force attacks try every possible combination systematically to break through authentication controls, dictionary attacks uses a large but limited number of pre-selected words and phrases. Not going through every possible combination reduces the likelihood that a difficult password will be guessed correctly, but a dictionary attack requires less time and resources to execute. “A password dictionary list is typically built specifically for the target under attack,” says Heiland. “For example, if the targeted organization was called London Widgets located in London, then the predefined target list would contain variations of words potentially related to the organization under attack and London area or regional subject matter such as ‘Westminster,’ ‘ChelseaFC1990,’ ‘SouthBank2020’ or ‘CityOfLondon2020,’” Many tools used for dictionary attacks include common passwords taken from security breaches leaked online and common variants of certain words and phrases, such as substituting ‘a’ with ‘@’ or adding numb...

By • What is a dictionary attack? A dictionary attack is a method of breaking into a password-protected computer, network or other IT resource by systematically entering every word in a dictionary as a password. A dictionary attack can also be used in an attempt to find the key necessary to decrypt an Dictionary attacks work because many computer users and businesses insist on using ordinary words as passwords. These attacks are usually unsuccessful against systems using multiple-word passwords and are also often unsuccessful against passwords made up of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers in random combinations. In systems with strong password requirements, the brute-force method of attack, in which every possible combination of characters and spaces is tested up to a certain maximum length, can sometimes be effective. However, a Strong, randomized passwords cannot be easily predicted, and they are highly unlikely to be included in the predetermined password library. Because a dictionary attack's guess attempts are limited to a preselected list, it is essentially impossible to crack nonpredictable passwords. Ponemon Institute's latest research on the state of password practices in IT How do dictionary attacks work? A dictionary attack uses a preselected library of words and phrases to guess possible passwords. It operates under the assumption that users tend to pull from a basic list of passwords, such as "password," "123abc" and "123456." These lists include pred...

Author: Esheridan Contributor(s): KirstenS, Paul McMillan, Raesene, Adedov, Dinis.Cruz, JoE, Daniel Waller, kingthorin Blocking Brute Force Attacks A common threat web developers face is a password-guessing attack known as a brute force attack. A brute-force attack is an attempt to discover a password by systematically trying every possible combination of letters, numbers, and symbols until you discover the one correct combination that works. If your web site requires user authentication, you are a good target for a brute-force attack. An attacker can always discover a password through a brute-force attack, but the downside is that it could take years to find it. Depending on the password’s length and complexity, there could be trillions of possible combinations. To speed things up a bit, a brute-force attack could start with dictionary words or slightly modified dictionary words because most people will use those rather than a completely random password. These attacks are called dictionary attacks or hybrid brute-force attacks. Brute-force attacks put user accounts at risk and flood your site with unnecessary traffic. Hackers launch brute-force attacks using widely available tools that utilize wordlists and smart rulesets to intelligently and automatically guess user passwords. Although such attacks are easy to detect, they are not so easy to prevent. For example, many HTTP brute-force tools can relay requests through a list of open proxy servers. Since each request appea...