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Experiments with Computer Password Cracking and Shielding Techniques

Abstract

Internet is dominating almost every aspect of our life. Internet applications are too many in today’s business world. It is hard to imagine any office or home without a computer network. All kinds of money transactions are possible today because of the fast changes in computer technology. As a result, everyone with an online account can buy or sell anything over the Internet in a secured environment. Therefore, it is important to secure the computer with the easy username and an unbreakable password. This topic can be integrated into anyone of the Computer Networks or Network Security courses for undergraduate students majoring in Computer Engineering Technology. This paper explains the importance of secured password and examines the kinds of passwords that are breakable. The password cracking uses simple open source software tools available in the Internet. In addition, this paper also discusses different types of password related attacks and password shielding techniques. Summary of the experimental results are also provided for different passwords with various lengths, characters, and complexity.

1. Introduction

Internet has allowed remote access to any organization in the world anytime of the day or night. This generated lot of attention around the world and easy way of entering into anyone’s network was made possible. At the same time easy access to open source software codes allowed the computer hackers to grow in numbers and get smarter. Password security has become more important part of today’s computer network. Although the security of a password encryption algorithm is an intellectual and mathematical problem, it is only one tiny facet of a very large problem [1]. It has become a common practice in every organization that computer system administrators are constantly looking for new ways to protect and better the password. There are several ways of building a secured system and also keep up with the hardware speeds and software updates [2]. In general passwords have always been the primary security to authenticate entry and to keep away unwanted people from gaining access to the network.

Password guessing attacks can be categorized by the amount of interaction they require with an authentication system [2]. In on-line attacks, the perpetrator must make use of an authentication system to check each guess of a password. In off-line attacks, an attacker obtains information--such as a password hash--that allows him to check password guesses on his own, with no further access to the system. On-line attacks are generally considerably slower than off-line ones. Systems can detect on-line attacks fairly easily and defend against them by slowing the rate of password checking and limiting the number of tries to crack the password. In contrast, once an attacker has obtained password verification information, the only protection a system has from off-line attacks is the computational cost of checking potential passwords.

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Rajaravivarma, V., & Akujuobi, C. (2009, June), Experiments With Computer Password Cracking And Shielding Techniques Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5490