Some Of The Popular Password Cracking Techniques

  

•        Dictionary Attacks An attack of this type takes the form of a password-cracking application that has a dictionary file loaded into it. The dictionary file is a text file that contains a list of known words up to and including the entire dictionary.

•        Brute-Force Attacks In this type of attack, every possible combination of characters is attempted until the correct one is uncovered.

•        Syllable Attack This type of attack is a combination of a brute-force attack and a dictionary attack. It is useful when the password a user has chosen is not a standard word or phrase.

•        Rule-Based Attack This could be considered an advanced attack. It assumes that the user has created a password using information the attacker has some knowledge of ahead of time, such as phrases and digits the user may have a tendency to use.

•        Hybrid Attack This form of password attack builds on the dictionary attack but with additional steps as part of the process. In most cases, this means passwords that are tried during a dictionary attack are modified with the addition and substitution of special characters and numbers, such as P@ssw0rd instead of Password.