TABLE OF CONTENTS Password cracking is the method of employing various techniques and tools to guess, methodically determine, or otherwise obtain a password to gain unauthorized access to a protected resource. Password cracking is sometimes used to legitimately recover a lost password, and sometimes an administrator will use password cracking to test user passwords. But, for the most part, password cracking is used to steal passwords.
Some call it a game; others, a crime. But whatever it is called, both the most talented computer professionals and the novice use it. As one hacker told me, [Password cracking] is power the power to compel a system to yield its knowledge.
I met that hacker in an IRC room. Well known in the hacking underground for his specialized password-cracking software, this hacker agreed to speak with me on conditions of anonymity not even a reference to his pseudonym. I m not a hacker or an exploiter. I just crack passwords, he told me, but still everyone calls me a hacker. Hacker, cracker; it s all the same.
Why does he do it? For trading, selling, sharing, he told me. It gets me respect, and, hey, it s fun and addicting, he explained, and I m not the only one doing this; it goes on all the time.
This is the reality. There are people who steal passwords for some form of gain, and it happens all the time.
Perhaps the most common question I hear when it comes to security is, why would one individual...
