

The computer being attacked is providing some service to its legitimate users, and a successful Online Password Cracking attack will allow the attacker to have the same privileges as the user whose credentials were guessed. The primary advantage of Online Password Cracking is that an attacker does not need special privileges to initiate the attack.

What Are the Advantages of Online Password Cracking? Finally, many servers only expose a single service to its legitimate users gaining access to that service may be the only way in to a network. So, if an attacker can gain the credentials of a legitimate user, he or she can then leverage any capabilities offered to legitimate users to gain further access. Many web and network applications provide that functionality to legitimate users. An attacker will attempt to accomplish two goals to get access to a system: upload a file and execute that file. Many times, the operating system and its services themselves will be hardened against attack, but the web service itself may have weaknesses, such as a SQL Injection or Operating System Command Injection, that can be exploited to gain further access. Network applications, such as custom web applications, are often the weak-underbelly of the network.

Many of these passwords would pass modern password complexity checks. Rockyou.txt contains real passwords compromised in the “RockYou!” social application hack. One popular list, “rockyou.txt” contains over 14 million passwords. There are common password lists available online. A Dictionary Attack is the better choice for Online Password Cracking, due to the slow speed of attacking an online network service. A Brute Force attack attempts all possible passwords of a given character set. A Dictionary Attack uses a list of common passwords, guessing one at a time, until the password matches or the list is exhausted. The tools that we discuss below generally support two modes: Dictionary and Brute Force.

For instance, an attacker can try to guess a user’s credentials for a web application login page for an SSH or Telnet server or for a network service such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), one of the mail protocols (SMTP, POP3, or IMAP), FTP, or one of many others. Online password cracking is attacking a computer system through an interface that it presents to its legitimate users by attempting to guess the login credentials. Breaking this rule is a felony in most jurisdictions. Keep in mind that these tools should only be used on systems for which the user has owner permission. System administrators and penetration testers can use Online Password Cracking tools to test their systems to look for users who are using weak passwords. This predictability can make it easier for attackers to “guess” a legitimate user’s password. A company will often dictate rules for password complexity, but users will still tend to follow those rules in such a way that their passwords will be easier for them to remember. Email addresses can be discovered from many online sources.Īdditionally, users will often use unsecure passwords, because they are easier to remember. Many companies will re-use employee’s email ids (without the domain name) as a universal login for other systems in the company. Often it is easy to guess legitimate login ids by doing some reconnaissance on the target of the attack. IntroductionĪpplication authentication that only requires a login and password is inherently unsecure, because an attacker only needs to obtain “one factor” to masquerade as a legitimate user.
#INSTAGRAM PASSWORD CRACKER ONLINE SERIES#
This is Part One of a Two-Part Series on Password Cracking.
