Common Password-Cracking Techniques Used By Hackers

 

How are passwords cracked by hackers? Check out these typical password-cracking methods that they employ. Your data may have been compromised if you use multiple services and websites, log in to them all, and grant access to your accounts in different places. Check it for yourself here. The first thing you should do if your data is compromised is to change it and come up with a new, secure password because it's likely floating around on the dark web. You don't want your data to be used for illicit purposes by anyone. However, if your account is still secure, then congrats. Regardless of whether your data is compromised, you can avoid a catastrophe by becoming knowledgeable about cybersecurity and cybercrime. We at Digital Private Vault educate and raise awareness, so that's what we do. Learn how to crack passwords here to ensure that it never happens to you.

Common Password Cracking Methods

1. Brute Force Attack: 

In a brute-force attack, the attacker submits numerous password combinations in an effort to guess the right one. With the aid of software, the attacker can automate this process and quickly run through all possible password combinations. Such software has recently been revitalized by advancements in hardware and technology. A computer cluster that can guess 350 billion combinations per second was unveiled in 2012 by a password-cracking expert. This cluster could break any common Windows password in less than six hours. That might make our skin crawl, but the good news is that this technique works well for cracking short passwords. According to NIST, 80-bit passwords can withstand a brute-force attack. Long passwords made up of phrases, numbers, and values are therefore difficult to decipher and take a lot of time.

2. Dictionary Attack: 

The name "dictionary attack" for this password-cracking method has a meaning. Using this technique, the hacker enters each word in the dictionary one by one until the password is broken. This is a form of brute force attack, but the words used are all words that can be found in a dictionary, as opposed to submitting different combinations of symbols, numbers, and words. Users' disregard for using strong passwords is the reason why this method can successfully crack passwords. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) of the UK carried out a survey to examine the accounts whose passwords had been stolen. The survey also revealed that these accounts made use of silly common passwords, people's names, band names, football team names, and dictionary words. Therefore, there is a chance that your account could be compromised if you sign in using a dictionary word. Using a random combination of dictionary words, such as "GreenElephantTowerStone," on the other hand, can make you immune to a dictionary attack. Additionally, for increased complexity and improved security, it is best to combine it with numbers and characters.

Also read: 10 Different Types Of Hackers

3. Rainbow Table Attack: 

Rather than being stored as plain text on the server, your passwords are encrypted into meaningless strings of characters. This procedure, known as hashing, guards against password misuse. Every time you enter a password to log in, it is transformed into a hash value and compared to one that has already been stored. You are logged into the system if the values match.

Now that the passwords have been transformed into hashes, the hackers attempt to obtain authentication by deciphering the hash. They accomplish this by employing a Rainbow table, which is a list of already-calculated hashes of potential password combinations. Hackers can use the rainbow table to decipher the hash, which will reveal your password. This eliminates the need to crack the password by locating the password hash in the database. Furthermore, finding the password itself is not necessary. The breach is successful if the hash matches. Using various methods, such as the salt technique, which involves adding random data to the passwords before hashing them, the rainbow table attack can be avoided.

4. Social Engineering: 

Unlike the password-cracking methods discussed above, which rely on technical flaws, social engineering makes use of human fallibility and psychology. Simply put, social engineering is the act of manipulating the victim to obtain private information, like bank account numbers or passwords. Cybercriminals use this technique frequently because they are aware that people are the key to accessing crucial credentials and data. And rather than coming up with fresh ways to hack into sophisticated and secure technology, they use tried-and-true techniques to manipulate and exploit age-old human instincts through the use of social engineering. For instance, it may be much simpler to trick someone into sharing their password than it is to attempt to decipher it. In actuality, 97% of cybercriminals use social engineering to target their victims, according to KnowBe4, a company that offers security awareness training.

5. Phishing  

A form of social engineering that cybercriminals use to deceive users and obtain their private information. This information is then used in cybercrimes like data theft and financial breaches. Phishing comes in many forms, including email spoofing, website spoofing, URL spoofing, smishing, vishing, and more. The most popular ones are carried out via phone, SMS, and email. In any of these cases, the attacker poses as a representative of a reliable company, arousing the victims' curiosity, fear, or sense of urgency in an effort to trick them into divulging sensitive information like passwords, identification information, financial and banking information, and more. A Phishing email warning the victim about a blocked credit card and creating a sense of urgency to log in and unblock it are two examples. These emails contain links to phony websites that look legitimate but are just a ruse. They now have access to it after you click on the link and enter your credentials. Therefore, it's crucial to spot and distinguish the fraudulent ones in order to prevent a Phishing disaster. Too good-to-be-true offers, generic email greetings, emails from strange senders with hyperlinks and attachments, sweepstakes, lotteries, unrealistic or free prizes—these are just a few of the indicators that you might be dealing with phishing.

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