Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Systems that use passwords for authentication must have some way to check any password entered to gain access. If the valid passwords are simply stored in a system file or database, an attacker who gains sufficient access to the system will obtain all user passwords, giving the attacker access to all accounts on the attacked system and possibly other systems where users employ the same or ...
Brute-force attacks work by calculating every possible combination that could make up a password and testing it to see if it is the correct password. As the password's length increases, the amount of time, on average, to find the correct password increases exponentially. [6]
A random password generator is a software program or hardware device that takes input from a random or pseudo-random number generator and automatically generates a password. Random passwords can be generated manually, using simple sources of randomness such as dice or coins , or they can be generated using a computer.
DK = PBKDF2(PRF, Password, Salt, c, dkLen) where: PRF is a pseudorandom function of two parameters with output length hLen (e.g., a keyed HMAC) Password is the master password from which a derived key is generated; Salt is a sequence of bits, known as a cryptographic salt; c is the number of iterations desired; dkLen is the desired bit-length ...
[2] This level of unpredictability assumes that potential attackers know three things: that Diceware has been used to generate the passphrase, the particular word list used, and exactly how many words make up the passphrase. If the attacker has less information, the entropy can be greater than 12.9 bits/word. [3]
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
In the simple case where the reduction function and the hash function have no collision, given a complete rainbow table (one that makes sure to find the corresponding password given any hash) the size of the password set |P|, the time T that had been needed to compute the table, the length of the table L and the average time t needed to find a ...
However most users choose passwords in predictable ways and many passwords are short enough that all possible combinations can be tested if fast hashes are used, even if the hash is rated secure against preimage attacks. [6] Special hashes called key derivation functions have been created to slow searches. See Password cracking.