How do Hackers Crack Password – Most Common Methods

1. Phishing

Phishing is one of the most popular methods for acquiring passwords currently in use and is frequently applied to various kinds of cyberattacks. Its success is based on the ability to fool a victim with information that appears to be trustworthy while operating with evil intent. This technique is rooted in social engineering techniques.

Businesses frequently conduct phishing training exercises on their employees, both with explicit notice and on naïve individuals, as they are well aware of the widespread phishing attacks on their staff. Phishing, which is typically done via email, can also be successful when done over other channels of communication, such as SMS text messaging, or “smishing.”

Phishing typically entails sending a recipient an email while including as many elements as possible to make the email appear legitimate, such as company signatures, proper spelling and grammar, and more sophisticated attacks recently attach onto pre-existing email threads with phishing coming later in the attack chain.

The attacker will then try to convince the user to download and open a malicious file, usually malware, in order to achieve their objectives. This may entail stealing their passwords, infecting their systems with ransomware, or even sneaking into their environment to act as a backdoor for later attacks launched from a distance.

As computer literacy has grown over time, many people are skilled at recognizing phishing emails. People are now aware of the telltale signs and are aware of when and how to report a questionable email at work. Only the best campaigns, like the aforementioned email hijack campaigns, are truly persuasive.

The days of receiving letters from fictitious Nigerian princes seeking an heir or companies working on behalf of wealthy departed family members are long gone, though the occasional ludicrously inflated claim can still be found.

Our current favorite involves the first Nigerian astronaut who, sadly, is lost in space and requires our assistance in transferring $3 million to the Russian Space Agency, which reportedly offers return trips.

2. Social engineering

When we talk about social engineering, we usually mean the technique of deceiving users into thinking the hacker is a real agent. Hackers frequently call a victim and pretend to be technical support, requesting information like network access credentials in order to help. Even though it’s far less prevalent these days, doing this in person with a phony uniform and credentials can still be quite effective.

Successful social engineering assaults may be both convincing and quite profitable, as was the case when hackers deceived the CEO of a UK-based energy company into losing £201,000 after they used an AI tool that resembled the voice of his assistant.

3. Malware

Malware, or harmful software intended to steal personal information, includes keyloggers, screen scrapers, and a variety of other malicious tools. There are highly specialized malware families that target passwords particularly in addition to highly disruptive malicious software like ransomware, which tries to prevent access to a machine entirely.

Keyloggers and others of their ilk capture a user’s activities, whether it be keystrokes or screenshots, and then send the information to a hacker. Some malware will even aggressively search a user’s machine for data related to online browsers or password dictionaries.

4. Brute force attack

In brute force assaults, hackers employ a number of techniques, frequently by trying and failing, to try to guess their way into a user’s account. This might involve attackers merely attempting to use well-known passwords, such “password123,” against a recognized username, for instance.

Making educated predictions can also be used as part of a brute force attack. For instance, the attacker may already be aware of the victim’s login and may even be familiar with them personally. In this case, guesses based on known birthdays, favorite sports teams, and family members’ names may all offer hints as to the right password, such as LiverpoolFC97.

They are somewhat similar to dictionary attacks but often lack the associated sophistication, automation, and computational complexity. hackers Crack Password

5. Dictionary attack

Dictionary attacks are similar to brute force methods but involve hackers running automated scripts that take lists of known usernames and passwords and run them against a login system sequentially to gain access to a service. It means every username would have to be checked against every possible password before the next username could be attempted against every possible password.

The process requires a lot of computing, which makes it frequently highly time-consuming. The time required to carry out a dictionary attack typically rises to an unmanageable level with the highest password encryption standards.

Given their processing capacity, there are concerns that the arrival of quantum computing may make passwords obsolete. Consumer-grade technology is also a threat to the password. For instance, it has been demonstrated that when eight eight-character passwords are run simultaneously, Nvidia’s RTX 4090 GPU can crack every single one of them in under an hour. There are over 200 billion possible password combinations, including varied letter capitalizations, symbols, and number placements.

6. Mask attack

Mask assaults are far more focused than dictionary attacks, which use lists of all conceivable phrase and word combinations. They frequently refine assumptions based on letters or numbers, which are typically based on prior information.

For instance, if a hacker is aware that a password starts with a number, they can modify the mask to only test passwords that start with numbers. A few of the factors that can be used to configure the mask include the length of the password, how the characters are organized, if special characters are utilized, and how frequently a single character is repeated. hackers Crack Password

The objective is to significantly shorten the time required to crack a password and eliminate any extra processing.

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7. Rainbow table attack

Every time a password is stored on a system, it is normally encrypted using a “hash,” or a cryptographic alias, rendering the original password impossible to ascertain without the associated hash. Hackers keep and exchange folders that record passwords and their matching hashes, frequently constructed from prior hacks, in order to get around this, speeding up the process of breaking into a system (used in brute force attacks).

Rainbow tables go one step further by storing a precompiled list of all potential plain text versions of encrypted passwords based on a hash technique, as opposed to only supplying a password and its hash. Then, hackers can match any encrypted passwords they find in a company’s system with these listings. hackers Crack Password

Much of the computation is done before the attack takes place, making it far easier and quicker to launch an attack, compared to other methods. The downside for cyber criminals is that the sheer volume of possible combinations means rainbow tables can be enormous, often hundreds of gigabytes in size.

8. Network analysers

Network analysers are tools that allow hackers to monitor and intercept data packets sent over a network and lift the plain text passwords contained within

Such an attack requires the use of malware or physical access to a network switch, but it can prove highly effective. It doesn’t rely on exploiting a system vulnerability or network bug, and as such is applicable to most internal networks. It’s also common to use network analysers as part of the first phase of an attack, followed up with brute force attacks.

Of course, businesses can use these same tools to scan their own networks, which can be especially useful for running diagnostics or for troubleshooting. Using a network analyser, admins can spot what information is being transmitted in plain text, and put policies in place to prevent this from happening.

The only way to prevent this attack is to secure the traffic by routing it through a VPN or something similar.

9. Spidering

Spidering refers to the process of hackers getting to know their targets intimately in order to acquire credentials based on their activity. The process is very similar to techniques used in phishing and social engineering attacks, but involves a far greater amount of legwork on the part of the hacker – although it’s generally more successful as a result.

How a hacker might use spidering will depend on the target. For example, if the target is a large company, hackers may attempt to source internal documentation, such as handbooks for new starters, in order to get a sense of the sort of platforms and security the target uses. It’s in these that you often find guides on how to access certain services, or notes on office Wi-Fi usage

It’s often the case that companies will use passwords that relate to their business activity or branding in some way – mainly because it makes it easier for employees to remember. Hackers are able to exploit this by studying the products that a business creates in order to build a hitlist of possible word combinations, which can be used to support a brute force attack.

As is the case with many other techniques on this list, the process of spidering is normally supported by automation.

10. Offline cracking

It’s important to remember that not all hacking takes place over an internet connection. In fact, most of the work takes place offline, particularly as most systems place limits on the number of guesses allowed before an account is locked.

Offline hacking usually involves the process of decrypting passwords by using a list of hashes likely taken from a recent data breach. Without the threat of detection or password form restrictions, hackers are able to take their time.

Of course, this can only be done once an initial attack has been successfully launched, whether that’s a hacker gaining elevated privileges and accessing a database, by using a SQL injection attack, or by stumbling upon an unprotected server.

11. Shoulder surfing

Far from the most technically complex method in this list, shoulder surfing is one of the most rudimentary but effective techniques available to hackers, given the right context and target.

Somewhat self-explanatory, shoulder surfing simply sees hackers peering over the shoulder of a potential target, looking to visually track keystrokes when entering passwords. This could take place in any public space like a coffee shop, or even on public transport such as a flight. An employee may be accessing in-flight internet to complete a task before landing and the hacker could be sitting nearby, watching for an opportunity to note down a password to an email account, for example.

If you work from public places on a regular or even semi-regular basis, it is worth considering using a device fitted with technology to prevent prying eyes from seeing what’s on the display. HP’s EliteBooks often come with the option to configure a device with a Sure View privacy screen, for example. Other third-party options are also available from online retailers that can simply be placed over most laptop displays, and they’re affordable too.

12. Guess

A hacker can always attempt to guess your password if everything else fails. Various users continue to utilize memorable phrases even though there are many password managers that generate impossible-to-guess strings. These are frequently based on interests, animals, or families; much of this information can be found on the profile pages that the password is intended to secure.

By using password managers, many of which are free, and practicing good password hygiene, you may eliminate this as a potential entry point for criminals.

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