You don’t want to fall victim to a password cracker. Not only will your account be hacked, but a hacker could also use your data to steal your identity. Don’t risk having your password stolen. Follow the techniques below and download a program that will warn you if your password is ever leaked.
What is password cracking?
Password cracking is the process of revealing a user’s password. Websites use encryption to store passwords so that third parties cannot retrieve passwords. Malicious hackers and cybercriminals use password cracking methods to bypass encryption technologies, retrieve passwords, and gain access to personal data.
Common password cracking techniques
Your password is stored on a website’s server as an encrypted string called a hash . Hackers cannot decrypt hashing algorithms and retrieve your password. But there are many password cracking techniques that they can use to get the information. They can even trick you into entering your password on an unauthorized, dangerous website .
Certain forms of password attacks and other ways to crack passwords and evade encryption are becoming more sophisticated and varied. Below, we’ll take a closer look at some of the most common password cracking methods and how you can protect yourself from them.
Guess passwords
Passwords should be hard to crack, but easy to remember. Unfortunately, many people underestimate the risks and usually choose a password they can remember. Often data can be easily accessed by guessing that the password is indeed ‘password’.
Other common passwords include birthdays and hobbies, making passwords easy to guess. When setting your passwords, don’t use terms that can be easily guessed or found online. Instead, use long and hard-to-guess passwords or passphrases that combine multiple random words.
A password manager allows you to store your passwords in a secure manner.
Brute Force Attacks
Brute -force attacks try every conceivable character combination. The brute-force password cracking process converts millions of possible passwords into hashes that are compared to the hash associated with your password.
This process can take a very long time. The more complex the password, the longer it will take to crack . If a password is complex enough, it will take a powerful computer hundreds or even thousands of years to crack it. While some of these attacks leverage the power of botnets , a good password can still fend off a brute-force attack.
In brute-force attacks, hackers can also recycle credentials . Previous combinations of cracked usernames and passwords are used. Reverse brute-force attacks also exist. Then a common password (such as ‘password’) is used to retrieve usernames.You can easily hack with
Brutus Password Cracker Download.
dictionary attack
Dictionary attacks use a huge table of fairly common passwords and their hashes. For example, dictionary attack software can compare an encrypted hash on Facebook’s server to a hash in the database. And the chance of a match is there.
These sample passwords contain phrases or words from dictionaries with minor adjustments. A password in which a random character or number has been added or omitted in the middle can still be retrieved in this way.
If you’re wondering how there is a list of hundreds of millions of possible passwords, the answer is that a text file with so much text only takes up a few gigabytes and is easy to download.
The dictionary attack list also serves as a database for previously cracked passwords. This puts people who reuse passwords multiple times at greater risk. Dictionary attacks make it clear how important it is to always use unique passwords.
social engineering
In social engineering , people are manipulated in such a way that they pass on privacy-sensitive information. Hackers know exactly what kind of emails people open mindlessly. If you receive an email alerting you to an impending security issue with your account, do not click a link or enter a password or personal information.
Other tactics include using fraudulent email addresses, such as admin [@] paypa|.com . You’d be surprised how many people can’t tell the difference between the lowercase letter L and the symbol | .
Never click a link in an email that you didn’t generate yourself (login confirmation emails) or that wasn’t sent by someone you know, no matter how trustworthy the address looks. Phishing attacks take many forms, but in all cases, hackers hope you don’t notice something suspicious.
Rainbow table attack
Rainbow-table attacks do not require the storage of hundreds of millions of combinations of passwords and hashes. Rainbow tables contain pre-calculated hashes that allow the entire string to be cracked relatively quickly. This means less volume is needed and each password hash combination is much easier to find.
While brute-force attacks take a lot of time and dictionary attacks take up a lot of space (because huge files have to be searched), rainbow-table attacks make certain trade-offs that reduce the amount of time and space required. T
mask attack
Mask attacks assume that a password has a common form, such as one uppercase letter at the beginning followed by several lowercase letters, and does not go through every possible iteration. With mask attacks, passwords can be cracked in minutes as opposed to the years that brute-force attacks can take.
spidering
Spidering involves vetting a company’s internal or external communications to find phrases or jargon that employees could use as passwords. Like individual passwords, corporate passwords often reflect the day-to-day activities of the employees who use them. The more training documents and promotional materials a company has, the greater the chance that passwords can be cracked.
Crack Offline
In offline cracking, a hacker gets hold of a set of hashed passwords from a hacked server and then compares the plain text passwords with the hashes offline. The administrator of the host website does not realize that something is going on and the hacker has enough time to crack the password.
Password hacking tools
Network analyzers and packet capture programs are two types of password cracking tools. This checks and intercepts data packets. These utilities require a network connection. Once established, however, the bits of data going in and out can be converted to plain text. Fortunately, those same programs can also help a company find security vulnerabilities.
password crackers
Many of the most popular password crackers use a combination of the above techniques. The fact that they are easy to use and consumer demand for powerful PCs is increasing means that more and more people are hacking.
malware
Passwords can also be cracked with malware. Keyloggers are a form of malware that covertly records all your keystrokes and sends them back to the person who placed the keylogger on your system.
Use the best antivirus software you can find to protect yourself from keyloggers and other malicious software. Installing a strong anti -malware program will keep password-cracking software off your device.
brutus
Brutus is a brute-force password cracker that uses a rich, dictionary-based attack method that allows infinite guesses. Brutus is not only popular with cyber criminals, but also has legitimate uses. For example, when someone does not know the password of his own router.
RainbowCrack
RainbowCrack helps hackers crack passwords by generating rainbow tables. These contain sets of pre-calculated hashes that speed up password cracking. Fortunately, the use of rainbow tables can be countered with a common technique known as salt . This is a process by which host websites add random strings to plain text passwords. The salt is then stored in the database along with the hash.
Cain and Abel
Cain and Abel extracts all passwords found on a computer. Unless you completely wipe all your system files, a Windows 10 password cracker like Cain and Abel can recover passwords for email addresses, operating systems, and Wi-Fi connections, among other things.
Password protecting Word and Excel files allows you to lock down highly sensitive information.
Medusa
With Medusa, passwords are checked against a dictionary. It can even be used to retrieve passwords from other devices on the same Wi-Fi network. Medusa requires a little technical knowledge, but instructions for use are easy to find.
With the proliferation of software such as the Medusa password cracker, it is now more important than ever to use long, unique, and hard-to-guess passwords or passphrases.
Is password cracking illegal?
Cracking passwords on an online service is illegal unless you have permission to test the security of a system. Even if it’s your own password, breaking into a service like Facebook continues to break in. You commit a crime, even if your intentions are good.
People have been arrested in the US and other countries for providing password cracking services . In 2014, it was discovered that operators of such a service had broken into email accounts and then demanded a ransom to restore access.
How can I prevent my passwords from being hacked?
Password privacy often seems very complicated. But you are in control. The most frequently cracked passwords are not created according to the basics of password protection. For example, a password should not simply be ‘password’ or contain a simple string of numbers such as ‘123456’.
Here’s how to prevent your passwords from being hacked.
Create a long, unique and hard-to-guess password
- Use different upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
- Optionally, use a passphrase that consists of random and unrelated words.
- Spread the special characters. Do not use just one capital letter at the beginning of your password.
- Create a password of at least 16 characters.
Use hard-to-guess passphrases made up of random words to keep your accounts safe.
Even with the most advanced methods on the most powerful computers, hackers would take years to crack a password that meets all of those conditions. A good password manager can generate strong passwords for you so that you don’t have to come up with them yourself.
Enable two-factor authentication
Having your phone with you at all times can work to your advantage. Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security for logging into accounts. This is often done via a mobile app or SMS service. While some hackers have faked 2FA text messages, authentication apps are a very secure method of account authentication and protection.
Use a VPN
With a VPN (Virtual Private Network) , both your incoming and outgoing internet traffic is encrypted. Password crackers sometimes capture bits of data in transit and this is where the benefits of VPNs can really come in handy.