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Learn About Common Types of Password Attacks and Their Prevention
Blog Summary: Password attacks can cause significant damage to a business’s confidentiality, leading to financial loss, operational downtime, and affected goodwill. Thus, its mitigation measures should be performed on a prior basis. This blog helps you understand password attacks, password security, types of password attacks, and powerful prevention practices. Give this blog a read to obtain detailed insights into password attacks.
Even after robust authentication methods, the existence of password attacks does not seem to cease. One of the core reasons could be users who are tired of managing different passwords for their apps that have their details and data saved. Do you know, according to a survey, weak passwords account for about 30% of global data breaches? Furthermore, inadequate password practices are linked to 81% of breaches within companies.
However, to prevent password attacks, we first need to understand the types of password attacks and what causes them to occur. Therefore, we have curated this blog for you to help you learn about the most common password attacks and robust prevention tips to eradicate them.
Keep reading this blog to learn important details about password attacks, to know what password security is, and how you can enhance web application security testing.
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Table of Contents
- What is a Password Attack, and How Does it Work?
- What is Password Security?
- 7 Types of Password Attacks
- 8 Prevention Practices to Stop Password Attacks
- How can ZeroThreat Mitigate the Security Risk for You?
What is a Password Attack, and How Does it Work?
A password attack is a method that attackers use by making repetitive attempts to obtain unauthorized access to a system by compromising users' passwords. There are multiple types of password attacks; each is employed to exploit different vulnerabilities. The effectiveness of these attacks often depends on the complexity of the passwords and the security measures in place, such as account lockouts and multifactor authentication. We will learn multiple types of password attacks in detail, but let's first understand what password security is.
What is Password Security?
Password security involves applying practices that align with the latest cyber security trends to safeguard passwords from being compromised or exploited. Key factors of password security include deploying multifactor authentication (MFA) to add an additional layer of protection, regularly updating passwords, and optimizing password managers to securely store and manage them.
7 Types of Password Attacks
Understanding common password attack examples is vital to working on their mitigation. Hence, we have curated common types of password attacks in detail so you can learn about them and fix them.
1. Brute Force Attack
By using a brute force attack, an attacker tries all the possible ways of cracking a password. He systematically makes repetitive attempts at possible combinations of characters until he cracks the correct password. It's a tedious process of attacking that is entirely dependent on computational power.
Attack Process: There are automated tools that attackers use to test all possible combinations, which include numbers, symbols, and letters, against the target user's account until the ideal match is discovered.
2. Dictionary Attack
In a dictionary attack, the attacker creates a list of standard words that are frequently used by users as their password. The list carries common words and phrases and is known as a "dictionary."
Attack Process: The attacker operates software that systematically, every entry in the dictionary is against the target account. Since numerous passwords are based on common words or patterns, attackers use this dictionary attack method to target accounts with weak passwords generally.
3. Phishing Attack
In phishing attacks, the attackers manipulate users by impersonating a trustworthy entity and obtaining access to their credentials by deceiving them. These attacks exploit human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities.
Attack Process: The attacker generates fake emails, websites, or phone calls that appear to come from Bonafide organizations or entities, such as banks or social media platforms. The user is manipulated to enter their login credentials on a fraudulent site or respond to a deceptive message, thereby giving away their password.
4. Rainbow Table Attack
A rainbow table attack uses precomputed tables of hash values to reverse-engineer the original passwords from their hashes. Rainbow tables are essentially large databases of hash values mapped to corresponding plaintext passwords.
Attack Process: Once the database is compromised, the attacker starts comparing hash values from the hacked database with the precomputed values in the rainbow table. If the match is detected, the attacker can determine the original password. The rainbow table enables attackers to crack passwords by avoiding the requirement to compute hashes in real-time.
5. Credential Stuffing
With credential stuffing, the attacker tries to log in with the stolen details of users on different sites. This attack takes the disadvantage of the fact that people often apply the same passwords across multiple accounts.
Attack Process: Attackers automate the process of attempting the stolen credentials on multiple websites, often using bots to perform these login attempts quickly and on a large scale. Their motive is to obtain unauthorized access to accounts on different platforms using the same credentials.
6. Keylogging
In keylogging, the attacker captures keystrokes typed by a user to record passwords and other confidential details. This can be done using either software or hardware devices.
Attack Process: The attacker slyly installs keylogging software on the victim's device or uses a hardware keylogger connected between the keyboard and the computer. Every keystroke is logged and transmitted back to the attacker. This software enables them to capture passwords as they are entered.
7. Password Spraying
In the password spraying method, some common passwords are tried across a large number of user accounts. This approach decreases the risk of account lockouts and detection, as it avoids rapid, repeated attempts on any single account.
Attack Process: The attacker starts with a list of commonly used passwords (e.g., "Password123", "123456", "welcome1") and tries these passwords against many accounts within a system or network. This is done in a way that each password is tried for a small number of accounts before moving on to the following password in the list.
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8 Powerful Prevention Practices to Stop Password Attacks
Now that we have learned about the most used password attack types, it's high time to learn the defensive practices that ensure the attackers are not able to obtain unauthorized access to sensitive information.
1. Use Unique and Tough Passwords
Passwords are bound to be complex. Ideally, a password should be created by incorporating a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Also, every account a user uses must have a unique password to avoid a single breach from compromising various accounts and password enumeration. Strong passwords are less susceptible to being guessed or cracked.
2. Enforce Multifactor Authentication Method (MFA)
Multifactor authentication requires users to provide two or more forms of verification to log in successfully. This ideally includes something they know (password), something they have (a smartphone or hardware token), or something they are (biometric data like fingerprints). MFA adds an additional layer of security, which makes it almost impossible for attackers to crack passwords and gain unauthorized access.
3. Implement Robust Password Policies
Establish robust policies that generalize the creation of passwords following specific requirements such as minimum length, complexity, and regular updates. These policies help ensure that passwords are not easily guessable and meet security standards.
4. Uniformly Update and Rotate Passwords
Maintaining the practice of updating passwords on a regular basis helps minimize the risk of long-term exposure to compromised credentials. Uniformly rotating passwords decrease the chance of an old password being used for an extended period, which is particularly necessary for sensitive accounts.
5. Use Account Lockout and Rate Limiting
Configure account lockout policies to temporarily lock accounts after a specified number of failed login attempts. Rate limiting restricts the number of login attempts that can be made within a specific timeframe. These measures prevent automated attacks like brute force and password spraying.
6. Secure Password Storage and Transmission
Ensure that your password's storage is secured with the help of hashing algorithms with added salts to safeguard them against hash cracking. Use encryption protocols (e.g., HTTPS) to safeguard your passwords during transmission over networks by making sure that they are not intercepted by attackers.
7. Deploy Anti-phishing Methods
Optimize anti-phishing tools and methodologies to identify and block phishing attempts. These solutions comprise email filters, web filters, and security awareness training that prevent users from falling victim to phishing scams that attempt to steal passwords.
8. Use Network Segmentation and Least Privilege Principles
Segment the network to restrict the spread of potential breaches and utilize the principle of least privilege. The least privilege principle ensures that users have only the limited level of access necessary for their roles and responsibilities. This relatively lowers the risk of compromised credentials and helps safeguard sensitive areas of the network.
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How Can ZeroThreat Mitigate the Security Risk for You?
We all know password attacks in cyber security have become sophisticated, but the security measures and prevention practices have not just to match the pace of advance but to take it one level up. That's when we can always stay one step ahead of such potential attacks and maintain high-powered security.
Optimizing advanced tools also plays a significant role in enhancing web application security. Hence, we have ZeroThreat for you, an AI-powered DAST tool that seamlessly assesses sophisticated vulnerabilities in web applications and APIs at 5X speed with accurate results.
So, all you need to do is sign up for free and allow the tool to proactively perform a comprehensive vulnerability assessment process by reducing 90% pen testing efforts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the signs of a password attack?
Check out the key signs of a password attack on your system:
- Unusual Login Attempts
- Suspicious Login Locations
- Increased Account Lockouts
- Anomalous Account Activity
- Security Alerts
- Unusual IP Addresses
- Unusual Traffic Patterns
- Phishing Attempts
- Security Threat Alerts