Brute-force attack. Brute force (also known as brute force cracking) is a trial and error
method used by application programs to decode encrypted data such as
passwords or Data Encryption Standard (DES)
keys, through exhaustive effort (using brute force) rather than
employing intellectual strategies. Just as a criminal might break into,
or "crack" a safe by trying many possible combinations, a brute force
cracking application proceeds through all possible combinations of legal
characters in sequence. Brute force is considered to be an infallible,
although time-consuming, approach.
Crackers are sometimes used in an organization to test network security,
although their more common use is for malicious attacks. Some
variations, such as L0phtcrack from L0pht Heavy Industries, start by
making assumptions, based on knowledge of common or
organization-centered practices and then apply brute force to crack the
rest of the data. L0phtcrack uses brute force to crack Windows NT
passwords from a workstation. PC Magazine reported that a system
administrator who used the program from a Windows 95 terminal with no
administrative privileges, was able to uncover 85 percent of office
passwords within twenty minutes.( courtesy- http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/ )
mine 34 undecillion years :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for the website.