Top 5 Password Attack Types: Infosec Awareness & Roundup

Did you know that the very first?password attack?happened in 1962? At that time, MIT's CTSS (Compatible Time-Sharing System) was the first to utilize passwords for granting individual access. Nowadays, password attacks have become one of the most significant concerns for both companies and civilians. The?Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report?has stated that more than 80 percent of web application breaches were due to password-related issues.

Since password attacks are a persistent problem, below is a list of the top 5 password attacks types:

Brute Force Attack

A brute force attack is a type of password crack that uses a computer program to generate and try every possible combination of characters until it finds the correct password. This attack is very time-consuming and often requires large amounts of computing power, but it can be successful if the attacker has enough time and resources.

Dictionary Attack

A dictionary attack is a type of password crack that uses a list of words (usually taken from a dictionary) to generate and try possible password combinations. This attack can be successful if the password is a common word or phrase, but it is much less likely to succeed if the password is a random string of characters.

Rainbow Table Attack

A rainbow table attack is a type of password crack that uses a pre computed table of all possible hashes of all possible passwords (or a subset thereof). This attack can be very effective if the attacker has a copy of the rainbow table, but it is much less likely to succeed if the password is a random string of characters.

Social Engineering Attack

A social engineering attack is a type of password crack that relies on tricking the user into revealing their password. This attack can be successful if the attacker is skilled at deception, but it is much less likely to succeed if the user is aware of the risks.

Credential Stuffing Attack

A credential stuffing attack is a type of password crack that uses a list of stolen usernames and passwords (usually obtained from an external data breach) to try and gain access to other accounts. This attack can be successful if the user re-uses passwords across multiple accounts, but it is much less likely to succeed if the user has a unique password for each account.