TOP PASSWORD CRACKING TECHNIQUES USED BY HACKERS

Top Password Cracking Techniques Used by Hackers

01. Dictionary Attack

The dictionary attack uses a simple file containing words that can be found in a dictionary, hence its rather straightforward name. In other words, this attack uses exactly the kind of words that many people uses as their password.

 02. Brute Force Attack

Similar to the dictionary attack, the brute force attack comes with an added bonus for the hacker. Instead of simply using words, a brute force attack lets them detect non-dictionary words by working through all possible alpha-numeric combinations from aaa1 to zzz10.

03. Rainbow Table Attack

A rainbow table contains a list of pre-computed hashes - the numerical value used when encrypting a password. This table contains hashes of all possible password combinations for any given hashing algorithm. They reduce the time needed to crack a password hash to simply just looking something up in a list.

04. Phishing

There's an easy easy way to hack : ask the user for his or her password. A phishing emails leads the unsuspecting reader to a faked log in page associated with whatever service it is the hacker want to access, requesting the user to put right some terrible problems with their security. That page then skims their password and the hacker can go use it for their own purpose.

 05. Malware

A keylogger, or a screen scraper, can be installed by malware which records everything you type or takes screenshot during a login process, and then forward a copy of this file to the hacker.

06. Spidering

Savvy hackers have realised that many corporate password are made up of words that connected to the business itself. Studying corporate literature, website sales materials and even the websites of competitors and listed customers can provide the ammunition to build a custom word list to use in a brute force attack.

07. Guess

The password cracker's best friend, of course, is the predictability of the user. Thanks to our brains, emotional attachment to things we like, the chances are those random passwords are based upon our interests, hobbies, pets, family and so on. Password crackers are very likely to look at this information and make a few - often correct - educated guesses when attempting to crack a consumer-level password without resorting a dictionary or brute force attacks.

Written by- Aayush Sourav