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Everything about Password cracking
Recovering passwords stored by computer systems
In cryptanalysis and computer security, password cracking is the process of guessing passwords protecting a computer system. A common approach is to repeatedly try guesses for the password and to check them against an available cryptographic hash of the password. Another type of approach is password spraying, which is often automated and occurs slowly over time to remain undetected, using a list of common passwords. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: Password crackingA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Password cracking using chunk similarityInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Linux Server SecurityThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Next Gen PCFG Password CrackingCited 83 times
- Go sideways: Key derivation functionA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Key stretchingA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Next Gen PCFG Password Cracking
Cracking More Password Hashes With Patterns
Password cracking: a game of wits
Password Cracking with Brute Force Algorithm and Dictionary Attack Using Parallel Programming
Advances in password cracking
Distributed password cracking with BOINC and hashcat
A survey exploring open source Intelligence for smarter password cracking
A Novel Dictionary Generation Methodology for Contextual-Based Password Cracking
🆕 Influential since 2022
Password cracking using chunk similarity
SE#PCFG: Semantically Enhanced PCFG for Password Analysis and Cracking
Using Parallel Techniques to Accelerate PCFG-Based Password Cracking Attacks
Harder, better, faster, stronger: Optimising the performance of context-based password cracking dictionaries
Privacy-Preserving Password Cracking: How a Third Party Can Crack Our Password Hash Without Learning the Hash Value or the Cleartext
📚 Books worth reading
Linux Server SecurityChris Binnie · 2016
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Key derivation function In cryptography, a key derivation function (KDF) is an algorithm that derives one or more secret keys from a secret value, such as a master key, a password…
- Key stretching In cryptography, key stretching techniques are used to make a possibly weak key, typically a password or passphrase, more secure against a brute-force…
- Password A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords…
- Pepper (cryptography) In cryptography, a pepper is a secret added to an input such as a password during hashing with a cryptographic hash function. This value differs from a…
- Brute-force attack In cryptography, a brute-force attack or exhaustive key search is a cryptanalytic attack that consists of an attacker submitting many possible keys or…
- Password strength Password strength is a measure of the effectiveness of a password against guessing or brute-force attacks. In its usual form, it estimates how many trials…
- Hashcat Hashcat is a password recovery tool. It had a proprietary code base until 2015, but was then released as open source software. Versions are available for…
- Rainbow table A rainbow table is a precomputed table for caching the outputs of a cryptographic hash function, usually for cracking password hashes. Passwords are typically…