From the course: CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Cert Prep

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Password attacks

Password attacks

From the course: CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Cert Prep

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Password attacks

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- [Mike] Passwords secure the vast majority of systems today. This time-tested approach does provide adequate security for many purposes, but it has a lot of drawbacks. Attackers can wage attacks designed to crack passwords stored in system files. Many attacks use this approach to steal massive numbers of user accounts. Let's take a look at some password attacks. On Linux systems, password files contain user credentials. When a user attempts to log into a system, the login process checks the password file to determine whether the password is valid. Now, of course, the file doesn't simply contain a copy of the password. That would be an easy target for attackers, and it would also allow system administrators to know all of the user passwords on a system. Instead, the password file contains a password hash, shown here, that's computed using a one-way function. When the user logs in, the login process takes the password, computes a hash, and then compares that hash with the one stored in…

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