An attack using every possible input to attempt to produce the correct output. Typically the method of last resort when no weakness allows the use of a more restricted input set. E.g. trying all possible (or likely) passwords, in an attempt to guess the correct one.
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Brute-force heuristics used in password cracking
Existing questions on this site discuss some of the heuristics used by password cracking tools to avoid doing a completely naive brute-force search (for example, "dictionary word with number ...
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332 views
Throttling failed login attempts: exponential timeout? by IP? using a session cookie? captcha?
I'm beginning to think this is not as simple as it looks, and many "accepted" answers here and in SO have alternative answers that criticize them. Here is what I have gathered so far
Most of what I ...
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3answers
126 views
Hashing a key: less entropy than the key itself
A web API needs to store a 'key' for authentication, in much the same fashion as a password but at 128 characters. My concern is that the salted SHA1 hash for the key has less entropy than the key ...
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1answer
78 views
Could a password hash that's prone to more collisions provide better overall security?
Website security breaches seem to be a common occurrence, giving the attacker password hashes that he can conduct a brute force attack against, often given him a list of passwords that will work on ...
4
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1answer
383 views
Brute force login attempt from spoofed IP's
I see that many of my WordPress installs are being hit with 1000+ failed login attempts using non-existing 'admin' account name. The requests come from different IP's every time, and I see IP's such ...
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1answer
328 views
Can a Bitlocker To Go user pin be brute forced?
I have a external hard disk and protected a partition on it with Bitlocker To Go. I printed the recovery code but I lost it. I can't remember the user PIN either. If I could only know the first ...
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1answer
185 views
Securing a simple webservice against brute-force with mod-security
I want to provide basic defense against brute-force attacks against a simple HTTPS web service. The web service provides a login method (let's say at http://example.org/login) which gets passed a ...
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510 views
Increased security with keepass
I am using keepass for securing passwords. I have a reasonable password, but if someone got hold of the file I am sure eventually they could brute force it.
I was thinking of using a key file as ...
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4answers
297 views
Finding all links under a website
How can i find all directories and links under a website? Note that there is no link from home page to all other pages. For example if i have a domain like this users.company.com and each user will ...
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2answers
140 views
Web & insecure HTTP - Using RSA for encrypting passwords on the client side
I used client side password hashing in my register and login project.
Its purpose is to prevent passive adversaries/eavesdroppers from discovering users' plaintext passwords when HTTP requests are in ...
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2answers
5k views
Remove Password Protection from XLS Document
Similar to what is listed here, http://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/index.php/hack-into-a-protected-excel-2007-or-2010-workbook/, is there a way to remove the password from an XLS (Excel 2003) ...
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Is passwords with combination of different encodings super safe?
I was thinking about generating passwords with combination of English, Arabic, Chinese charac. Is this pass secure enough against brute force attacks?
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570 views
Known Password Lengths and security considerations
Many people wil often brag about the length of their password, like "yeah nobody is ever going to crack my password cause its 22 characters long." I was thinking, if you knew the exact length of their ...
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200 views
is it easier to get the original password if you have multiple hashes of it?
Most users tipically use the same password for multiple applications. Let's say all of these applications hash the password in some way. Would it be easier for an attacker to get the original password ...
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2answers
294 views
Implementing brute force attacks on hash values in Javascript
I'm working for my bachelor thesis at the end of which I aim to implement a proof-of-concept Javascript-based hash cracker. The idea is to work like this: Users can submit a hash value along with ...
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1answer
337 views
Is using Gmail's browser-based client, more secure than using IMAP?
I never use the same password twice and my passwords are always comprised of a long, random string of letters, numbers and symbols. (with an offline password manager to store each password string)
...
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1answer
580 views
It's really that insecure to have POP3 enabled in my gmail account?
Several people are claiming that you should turn off pop3 in gmail because it allowed bruteforce attacks on the password.
Doesn't Google prevent this kind of attacks? What is the truth on this ...
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1answer
483 views
What is the fail2ban default setting for SSH login attempts?
I tried to block myself from my own server to test if fail2ban works correctly, so I tried ssh login and used a wrong password over and over. But I was blocked only after 13 failed logins instead of ...
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304 views
How to optimize compressed file cracking?
I'm currently doing research on cracking encrypted, compressed files (specifically: uif, zip, 7z, dmg). Looking at all the utilities out there, it seems the time it takes to crack something is ...
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1answer
706 views
Brute Forcing Password to a Truecrypt-encrypted file with Partial Knowledge
A while back, I encrypted a few files with Truecrypt, and stored the password in my head. Now I need to access it again, the password isn't working. I'm sure most of it is right, but I'm off by one or ...
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1answer
3k views
Is my router vulnerable if WPS is enabled but WPS pin code is disabled?
I was reading about Reaver and wi-fi protected setups (WPS).
In my Netgear router I have the option to disable the WPS pin code, but still have the WPS push button enabled. Am I secured with such ...
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2answers
1k views
Why limit passwords to ascii printable characters? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Do non-keyboard characters make my password less susceptible to brute forcing?
Every article on password security that I read tells people to make the password more ...
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2answers
3k views
How to setup GPU for Cracking WPA/WPA2?
I have a Dell N5110 15R Laptop that I'm planning to use for GPU based cracking of WPA/WPA2 passwords. The thing is, I'm not a really big fan of password dictionaries and rainbow tables, I'd rather ...
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1answer
398 views
Reasonable (BruteForce) Attempts/Second Estimate?
I've read various articles on password strength and passwords vs pass phrases (including the one from XKCD and its thread here), but most of those articles seem to be focused on online passwords, and ...
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1answer
303 views
Non English password dictionaries
What is a good resource for wordlists used in auditing passwords in non english languages. I have extensive wordlists in English ranging to several GB's, but can't find similar resources for other ...
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0answers
275 views
Can an attacker guess my password length from a hash? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Possible to detect password length from hash? Is doubling your password adds more security?
Considering I do not provide him any personal information relating to it, are ...
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3answers
768 views
what is the fastest and cheapest way to crack this kind of hash - md5(md5($password) + salt))?
I'm looking for a program that can use any GPU (ATI\NVIDIA) and can brute force a vBulletin hash - md5(md5($password) + salt)).
I have the salt and hash.
the password contains the symbols - ...
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3answers
854 views
Securing AES 128 encrypted ZIPs against brute force attacks
How long would it take to brute force decrypt an AES 128 encrypted zip file if the password is 8 characters long in the range of A-Z, a-z, 1-9?
Does it make any difference if .NET's System.Random ...
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2answers
140 views
Slow down symetric encryption
I'm developing a program in Java. In one step data should be encrypted and exported in a file.
As of now we are encrypting in AES-256
I want to slow down a possible brute force attack as much as ...
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2answers
243 views
Seeking advice on how to build a box to brute force hashes? [closed]
I work in a startup security firm, and I need to build a GPU-based to brute force password/hashes, which can be used to validate password strength and test hashing algorithms. I expect some high ...
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1answer
446 views
How long it will take to crack a RAR password?
I wonder how long it will take to crack 16 character alphanumeric WinRAR password for a mini supercomputer. As far as I know graphic cards are preferred over CPUs to crack passwords nowadays. If we ...
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2answers
279 views
Is a password easier to brute force if it contains a repeating pattern?
My question is different from this previous question: Does repeating one word to form a password result in a similar pattern in its encrypted format?. I'm specifically wondering about brute force ...
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1answer
305 views
Academic papers on GPU password cracking?
Are there any scientific papers or publications on GPU password cracking?
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279 views
Can key files be brute-forced like passwords?
Let's say you use a program like Truecrypt or Keepass which allows you to have a password + key file. I understand that passwords can be brute-forced/dictionary-attacked but is the same true for key ...
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1answer
12k views
How long to brute-force WPA password?
Bob has a password (for his WPA encrypted wifi) which is 8 characters, all lowercase, and not a dictionary word.
Eve lives next door to Bob and wants to illegally hack his WPA. The number of ...
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3answers
301 views
How can I determine whether a website somehow protects against brute force attacks on my password? (assume I can't create an anonymous account)
After the hack of Mat Honan I studied my own laundry list of accounts I have at the numerous web sites I use. There is one fact that stands out:
Many of the websites severely restrict the size and ...
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1answer
483 views
Will using unicode chars in my password increase security? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Do non-keyboard characters make my password less susceptible to brute forcing?
Bruteforce tries cracking the hash with every possible combination of letters.
Then, If ...
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1answer
611 views
Pen test cell-phones
A customer has asked to conduct a pen-test on the phones of employees. The target is text messages in the phones. Text messages are stored on the SIM for security reasons. Physical access to the ...
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1answer
123 views
How large RSA-keys could the worlds combined computer power factorize in reasonable time?
If you combined every microprocessor on earth into one humongous computational cluster, how large RSA-keys could you factor in reasonable time (lets say a few years)?
I know from reading the answers ...
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1answer
97 views
Pointers for john the ripper rulesets
I've been pouring over the JtR ruleset documentation and making little progress. I understand how to use it to make various permutations from a given wordlist, that's fine. However, I'm trying to ...
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2answers
127 views
Cloud services - A window to outsourcing illegal activities?
Recently I was exposed to a number of stories where alleged illegal activities (for this case, we can take brute-force) are outsourced to the cloud, and are run by the cloud providers. The providers, ...
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141 views
ASLR in Ubuntu 11.10
In many of the exploits I see nowadays, brute forcing is a common method of bypassing ASLR on 32 bit machines. However, many of these exploits crash the current process, for example, PHP. Isn't the ...
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1answer
224 views
Bruteforce on 10 characters length WPA2 password
I'm trying to hack my own WPA2 network for learning purposes.
I have the *.cap file generated by aircrack-ng tools after a WPA handshake.
I've tested by including my own password and a bunch of ...
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1answer
200 views
Use brute force to mitigate brute force
Just an idea I had, and I am sure there is a lot of material about this subject, so I am looking for a pointer as to where I can find more information.
My idea is this...
When storing a password in ...
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2answers
264 views
Known password length, brute force character in place?
We all know that brute forcing is a very slow process and trying all unnecessary possibilities is dumb. By knowing the password length, we can skip trying possibilities of other password lengths and ...
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5answers
211 views
Is there something similar to DNSBL's for protecting against forceful browsing?
I want to protect a couple of Apache webservers against forceful browsing. Lately there have been multiple scans querying for non-existent applications on them like phpMyAdmin, notably known for their ...
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139 views
How can i calculate the number of possible passwords?
I have found a flaw in a site where the password reset feature resets passwords in the following format
UpperCaseLetter-Number-LowerCaseLetter-Number-LowerCaseLetter-Number-UpperCaseLetter
...
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4answers
252 views
How unlikely is it that a Google Doc link is guessed?
Most (if not all) of us know that a Google Doc link looks something like this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13P3p5bA3lslqEJT1BGeTL1L5ZrQq_fSov_56jT9vf0I/edit
There are becoming several tools ...
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3answers
597 views
What utilities exist to brute force a username and password?
I'm trying to persuade management to purchase two factor authentication for securing VPN and terminal server access.
I've made significant progress by demoing TSGrinder, but would like to list other ...
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244 views
Our logs showing a lot of SSH brute force attacks originating on Port 11
this forum has been brilliant so far. Just wondering if I can get a bit more help:
Can I get some info on a large amount of SSH brute force attacks originating from port 11 on the external host over ...
