What is Password Cracking?

Password Cracking is a technique used to gain access starting from personal information and applies to organizational security. As with the ongoing advancement of technology data protection and management are very important and have a vital role in the prevention of cyber fraud and hacking.

Creation and management of unique and strong passwords are the ways to enforce data security and as well as periodically make necessary updates. However, hackers or cybercriminals can steal and get access to personal and sensitive data by employing the password cracking technique also for individuals and businesses.

What Does Password Cracking Mean?

Password cracking refers to the process of attempting to decipher passwords by using various techniques, such as dictionary attacks, brute force attacks, and rainbow table attacks, and is used by hackers to gain access to sensitive data, financial information, or personal accounts.

Password cracking involves the illicit process of obtaining unauthorized access to a computer system an online account or any personal accounts by decrypting passwords.

Key Terminology Associated With Password Cracking

1. Password Cracking

Password cracking is the process of identifying a password or passphrase by using different combinations of characters and trying to crack the same until the desired one is found and gain unauthorized access.

This method is mainly used for gaining access to confidential personal and touchy information.

2. Brute Force Attack

A brute force attack is used by hackers and cyber criminals and is a trial-and-error method for deciphering a password by trying all possible combinations of characters and keeping on doing so until the desired password is deciphered.

3. Dictionary Attack

A dictionary attack uses a commonly used word or phrase to identify and decipher the password.

This method turns out to be more useful, unlike the brute force attack as it may reduce the number of combinations needed for deciphering.

4. Rainbow Table Attack

A rainbow table attack uses a precomputed table for password cracking.

It consists of a large amount of password hash and their corresponding plaintext passwords for employing to reverse-engineer hashed passwords and to gain unauthorized access.

5. Phishing

Phishing is a social engineering technique used to trick users and unknowingly reveal sensitive and touchy information by making them divulge their passwords or other sensitive information.

Fake websites or emails are commonly used phishing techniques for getting credentials and unauthorized access.

How Password Cracking Works?

Password cracking is done by hackers and uses specialized software and tools to make the process faster more efficient and automated without the explicit knowledge of the users. However several techniques are followed and may be utilized by the attackers to crack passwords such as dictionary attacks, brute-force attacks, rainbow table attacks, and so on.

• Dictionary attacks are used for deciphering passwords and the hacker uses a list of commonly used passwords or words from a dictionary as potential passwords and then passes it to the software and the software systematically goes through each word in the list and tries it against the target account until the correct password is found and this method is very effective against weak passwords that are easily guessable, such as “password123” or “admin.”

• Brute-force attacks are useful for deciphering long and complex passwords with high computational power and a substantial amount of time is required to crack until the correct password is discovered.

• An attacker would use all possible character combinations starting from the single, then on to two characters, and keep trying until the password is deciphered with the advancement of technology and high computations pics, attackers can efficiently run brute-force attacks and crack passwords within a reasonable amount of time.

• For example, let’s consider a simple password like “local123.” Some possible combination are local1, olcal1, cloal1, lcoal1, oclal1, colal1, aolcl1, oalcl1, laocl1, alocl1, olacl1, loacl1, lcaol1, claol1, alcol1 and so on.

• Rainbow table attacks are sophisticated approaches to password cracking and use a precomputed table containing a large number of password hashes and their corresponding plaintext passwords.

When a hacker obtains a password hash from a system, will look it up in the rainbow table to quickly determine the plaintext password associated with that hash and is very effective against systems that store passwords in a hashed format without salting.

For example, let us assume a website that stores user passwords as hashed values in its database. An attacker who got access to the hashed passwords can use a rainbow table to look up the hashes and retrieve the plaintext passwords for gaining unauthorized access to user accounts.

Strategies For Prevention of Password Cracking

Setting up strong and unique passwords

Strong and unique password creation is one of the best ways to prevent password cracking and some points must be kept in mind while creating passwords like long, complex, and a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters are must.

Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides secured authentication and access by asking users to give two or more forms of verification before getting into the system hence password cracker faces difficulty and makes it more challenging to get unauthorized access.

Password updation

Password updation is very much appreciated and recommended to reduce the risk of password hacking and unauthorized access.

For Creating a Strong Password: What to Avoid?

For prevention of the password cracking attempts and to enhance security it’s very important to create strong passwords some common techniques are discussed below,

1. Avoid using common words for password

For example, we should never use easily guessed words such as ‘password’ or any place name or ‘1234’ and so on.

2. Sequential or Repeated characters for password

We should never use repeated characters such as ‘bbbb1113344’ or ‘a’ or ‘1234’ as can be easily deciphered.

3. Avoid using steer-clear Personal data

We should never use birth date, address, or family member names as passwords for easy deciphering and uncovering personal data.

4. Short and Simple Passphrases for password creation

Long and complex passwords made up of a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters are difficult to crack and are recommended at least 12 characters long for optimal security and protection

5. Avoid using reused passwords

We should not use the same password for multiple accounts as if one account is hacked then all the accounts will be affected and become vulnerable so we should use unique passwords for every account to keep the account secure and protected.

Conclusion

Password cracking is a technique used to gain access starting from personal information and is applicable for organizational security as well and has become a potential threat and key concern with the advent of technology. So, Individuals and business organizations must be aware of the ins and outs of password-cracking techniques followed by cybercriminals.

Preventive measures such as implementing strong and secured passwords frequent updation of passwords and effective management may help to reduce the risk for individuals and businesses. However, MFA techniques along with strong passwords, can provide strong security and protect personal and confidential information in the evolution of digital and technological advancements.

Frequently Asked Questions on Password Cracking- FAQs

Can encryption techniques reduce the risk of password cracking?

Encryption can help to protect and protect the data privacy by making use of standard algorithm and converts them into unreadable format as to prevent cybercriminals from deciphering the passwords.

Are online password generators secure and reliable?

Online password generators may be secured if and only if strong and robust encryption techniques are being used and generated passwords are not explicitly stored and saved .

How often the password updation should be carried out?

Password updation must be carried out ideally for every 90 days for reducing the risk of password cracking.

Additionally, password changing is a must and must be followed if any suspicious and abnormal activities are to be done without any delay to maintain the and keep the account secure.