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A brute-force attack is a cryptanalytic attack that can, in theory, be used to attempt to decrypt any encrypted data (except for data encrypted in an information-theoretically secure manner). [1] Such an attack might be used when it is not possible to take advantage of other weaknesses in an encryption system (if any exist) that would make the ...
A common approach (brute-force attack) is to repeatedly try guesses for the password and to check them against an available cryptographic hash of the password. [2] Another type of approach is password spraying, which is often automated and occurs slowly over time in order to remain undetected, using a list of common passwords. [3]
Defeating port knocking protection requires large-scale brute force attacks in order to discover even simple sequences. An anonymous brute force attack against a three-knock TCP sequence (e.g. port 1000, 2000, 3000) would require an attacker to test every three port combination in the 1–65535 range and then scan each port between attacks to uncover any changes in port access on the target ...
Though brute-force attacks (e.g. dictionary attacks) may be used to try to invert a hash function, they can become infeasible when the set of possible passwords is large enough. An alternative to brute-force is to use precomputed hash chain tables. Rainbow tables are a special kind of such table that overcome certain technical difficulties.
Key stretching also improves security in some real-world applications where the key length has been constrained, by mimicking a longer key length from the perspective of a brute-force attacker. [1] There are several ways to perform key stretching. One way is to apply a cryptographic hash function or a block cipher repeatedly in a loop.
A directory harvest attack (DHA) is a technique used by spammers in an attempt to find valid/existent e-mail addresses at a domain by using brute force. [1] The attack is usually carried out by way of a standard dictionary attack, where valid e-mail addresses are found by brute force guessing valid e-mail addresses at a domain using different permutations of common usernames.
Brute force attacks can be made less effective by obfuscating the data to be encoded, something that makes it more difficult for an attacker to recognise when he has cracked the code. One of the measures of the strength of an encryption system is how long it would theoretically take an attacker to mount a successful brute force attack against it.
Furthermore, the attack can be implemented instantaneously and without any requirement for expensive computing resources to carry out a brute force attack. This toolkit has subsequently been superseded by "Windows Credential Editor", which extends the original tool's functionality and operating system support.