Password Cracking

Password cracking is the most enjoyable hack for bad guys. It increases the sense of exploration and is useful in figuring out the password. Password cracking may not have a burning desire to hack the password of everyone. The actual password of the user is not stored in the well-designed password-based authentication system. Due to this, the hacker can easily access to user's account on the system. Instead of a password, a password hash is stored by the authentication system. The hash function is a one-way design. It means it is difficult for a hacker to find the input that produces a given output. The comparison of the real password and the comparison of two password hashes are almost good. The hash function compares the stored password and the hash password provided by the user. In the password-cracking process, we extract the password from an associated password hash. Using the following ways, we can accomplish it:

Dictionary attack: Most of the users use common and weak passwords. A hacker can quickly learn about a lot of passwords if we add a few punctuations like substituting $ for S and taking a list of words.

Brute-force guessing attack: A given length has so many potential passwords. If you use a brute-force attack, it will guarantee that a hacker will eventually crack the password.

Hybrid Attack: It is a combination of a Dictionary attack and Brute force attack techniques. This attack first tries to crack the password using the dictionary attack. If it is unsuccessful in cracking the password, it will use a brute-force attack.

How to create a strong password

There are 12 tools for password cracking. These tools use different password-cracking algorithms to crack the password. Most tools for password cracking are free. So you should maintain a strong password. The following tips are important while creating the password:

• The most important factor is password length. The Length of a password increases the complexity of password-guessing brute force attacks. The password can be cracked in a minute if it is made by random 7 characters. If the password is 10 characters, it takes more time as compared to 7 characters.
• The brute force password guessing will become more difficult if the user uses a variety of characters. Due to this, the hackers have to try various options for each password's character. Special characters and incorporate numbers also increase the difficulty for the hacker.
• In the credential stuffing attack, the hacker uses the stolen password from one online account to the other accounts. So it would be best to use a unique, random, and long password for all your online accounts.

What to avoid for a strong password

Cybercriminal or hacker knows all the clever tricks that users use while creating their passwords. Some common avoidable password mistakes are as follows:

Dictionary word: Using the dictionary attacks, every word in the dictionary is tested in seconds.

Personal information: The dictionary words are birthplace, relative's name, birthdate, favorite name, pet's name, your name, and so on. If they are not, various tools in the market grab the information of the users from social media and build a wordlist for the hackers.

Patterns: Most commonly used passwords are asdfgh, qwerty, 123457678, 1111111, and so on. Every password cracker has these passwords on their list.

Character Substitution: The well-known character substitutions are $ for S and 4 for A. These substitutions are automatically tested by dictionary attacks.

Number and special character: Most people use a special character and number at the end of the password. The password cracker developer uses these patterns.

Common passwords: Some companies like Splashdata publish a list every year which contains the most commonly used passwords. Just like the attacker, they crack the breached password and create these lists. While creating the password, you should never use these lists.

Random password: You should maintain your online account password as unique, random, and long. To store the password for online accounts, you should use the password manager.