[Cryptography] Brute-force password crackers?

Kent Borg kentborg at borg.org
Sat Dec 25 13:48:07 EST 2021


On 12/23/21 7:54 AM, Henry Baker wrote:
> Could someone please explain the current strategies of brute-force password crackers these days?
>   
> I presume that huge dictionaries of existing passwords, words, phrases, etc., + brute force alphabetic enumeration in order of probability?


For key passwords of mine I have two entropy estimates:

1. Entropy for a brute force break.

2. Entropy for someone who knows the format of my password. (I.e, is my 
password "diceware" or https://xkcd.com/936/ or…?)


In between 1 and 2 the vast search space things could be sped up a /lot/ 
by prioritizing search order to more probable tries first. And I assume 
there is extensive work on this, all classified.


-kb, the Kent who has spent some time thinking about how he would 
prioritize the search, how to feed target-specific information into the 
search.

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