Overview
Let’s look at some types of brute-force attacks in this tutorial. A brute force attack is a trial-and-error method hackers use to decode encrypted data such as passwords or DES Keys. (Data Encryption Standard)
A brute force attack is a type of password cracking that relies on guessing potential combinations of specified passwords until the correct one is found. It is also known as Exhaustive Search.
Types of Brute Force Attacks
There are various kinds of brute force attacks:
- Simple brute force Attacks
- Dictionary Attacks
- Hybrid Brute Force Attacks
- Rainbow Table Attack
- Reverse Brute Force Attack
- Credential Stuffing
- Mask Attack
- Rule-based Attacks
Simple brute force attacks
In a brute force attack, the hacker tries to guess your login credentials repeatedly without relying on software tools or other techniques. This method can be used to uncover basic passwords and PINs. For instance, if the password is set to “admin1234”, it can be easily guessed.
This involves trying all possible combinations of characters until the correct one is found. This method is straightforward but can be very time-consuming, especially for complex passwords.
Dictionary attacks
A dictionary attack is a method of cracking passwords that uses a pre-existing file containing words, phrases, common passwords, and other strings that are likely to be used as a password. This approach is faster than a brute force attack, which tries all possible password combinations, but it is less effective if the password is not included in the dictionary file.
Hybrid brute force attacks
Hybrid attacks combine dictionary and brute force attacks. These attacks use combinations that mix normal words and irregular characters. This method begins with a dictionary attack and then switches to a brute force approach, often by appending or prepending characters to the dictionary words.
Rainbow Table Attack
A rainbow table is a precomputed table for reversing cryptographic hash functions, usually for cracking password hashes. This method is effective for cracking simple passwords quickly, but it’s less effective for passwords protected by salting.
Salting is a technique used to secure passwords by adding random data to the input of a hash function.
Reverse Brute Force Attack
A reverse brute force attack is a technique used to identify usernames or accounts by starting with a known password. For instance, if we know the password is “pass1234” or “123456”, we can use this method to find matching usernames or accounts. This approach is effective against systems where many users might use the same weak passwords. Reverse brute force attacks do not focus on particular usernames but typically use common password sets or singular passwords against the enumeration of imaginable usernames.
Credential Stuffing
In this type of attack, the hacker utilizes previously leaked or stolen username/password combinations to gain unauthorized access to accounts on different platforms. This is made possible because many users tend to reuse the same passwords across multiple sites. The attacker may have obtained a username-password combination that works for a particular site for a specific client, and they will try to use the same combination on other websites.
Cybercriminals often have a vast collection of usernames and passwords that they use to access various websites and organizational resources. For instance, many users employ identical passwords on different sites for convenience.
Mask Attack
When the attacker knows some structure of the password (like length or the fact that it starts with a word followed by digits), a mask attack can be used to try combinations that fit this structure. This is more efficient than a simple brute-force attack.
Rule-based Attack
A rule-based attack is similar to a dictionary attack but with more complexity. It applies different rules to the words in the dictionary to generate password guesses. For example, capitalizing the first letter, replacing letters with numbers, etc.
Brute force attacks can be tedious, difficult to execute, and easily detectable. Most systems implement security measures like account lockouts, CAPTCHAs, or Multi-factor Authentication(MFA) to protect against these kinds of attacks.