Putting up a good and long password is advised by cybersecurity. However, cybersecurity doesn’t teach us how to identify hacking attempts. It doesn’t matter how strong your passwords were; there is always be an option for hackers to crack your passwords. The hackers nowadays follow well-developed algorithms, which speeds up the processes to extract the passwords. So, if you are amongst those who think that putting up a tough password is not always enough, then this article is just for you. Also Read: Best Android Hacking Apps and Tools in 2021
List of 17 Password Cracking Techniques Used By Hackers in 2021
We will discuss some password cracking techniques used by hackers to hack into our accounts. It’s worth noting that we have only shared the popular password-cracking techniques used by hackers, not all.
1. Dictionary Attack
A dictionary attack is a technique used by most regular hackers to determine the passphrase by trying their luck many times. Unlike its name, it works like a dictionary consisting of usual words that many people use as their password. On Dictionary attacks, hackers attempt to crack your passwords by making random guesses.
2. Brute Force Attack
Well, Brute-Force is an advanced version of Dictionary attack. In this attack, the hacker submits many passwords or passphrases with the hope of eventually guessing correctly. The attacker’s role is to systematically check all possible passwords and passphrases until the correct one is found.
3. Phishing
It is one of the easiest methods used by hackers. It does nothing, it simply asks users for their passwords, but the process of asking for passwords is unique and different. To carry out a Phishing campaign, hackers create a fake page and asks you to log in with your Id and password. Once you have entered the details, your details are transferred to the hacker’s server.
4. Trojans, Viruses, And Other Malware
Hackers usually develop these programs for the sole purpose of generating the target destruction. Viruses and worms are usually added to a user’s system so that they can make full use of a machine or a network as a whole and are usually spread by email or either it is hidden in any applications.
5. Shoulder Surfing
Well, Shoulder surfing is the practice of spying on the user of a cash-dispensing machine or another electronic device to obtain their personal identification number, password, etc. As the world is getting smarter, the Shoulder Surfing technique is becoming less effective.
6. Port Scan Attack
This is a technique often used to find weaknesses on a given server. It is normally used by those who are responsible for security to find vulnerabilities in the system. Port Scan Attack is used to send a message to a port and wait for a response, and the received data from the open port is an invitation for hackers to hack into your server.
7. Rainbow Table Attack
Well, Rainbow Table is usually a large dictionary that contains loads of pre-calculated hashes and the passwords from which they were calculated. The major difference between Rainbow and other dictionary attacks is the Rainbow table is specially optimized for hashes and passwords.
8. Offline Cracking
It’s one of the widely used password cracking techniques of hackers. In this attack, the hacker attempts to recover one or more passwords from the browser cache file. However, in Offline Password cracking, the hacker needs to have physical access to the target computer.
9. Social Engineering
Social engineering is an attack that relies heavily on human interaction and often involves tricking people into breaking normal security procedures. Hackers can try different tricks to break into normal security procedures.
10. Guessing
Here hackers try to guess your passwords; they can even attempt to guess your security answer. In short, hackers can try to guess everything to break their security and hack your account. However, thanks to two-step verifications, this type of technique is usually a failure nowadays.
11. Hybrid Attack
Well, the hybrid attack is another well-known hacking technique that is widely used by hackers. It’s the blend of the dictionary and brute force attack. In this attack, hackers add numbers or symbols to the filename to successfully crack a password. Most people change their passwords by simply adding a number to the end of their current password.
12. Cracking Security Questions
Well, we all now set up a security question on our Social networking platform. Security questions are useful when you can’t remember that one password. So you click on the ‘forgot password,’ and there you need to answer the security question to reset your password. However, hackers also try to guess security questions. Well, we should always remember the fact that security question answers are something that is easy to remember and has personal meaning to you. So, if the hacker is your friend or relative, he/she can easily guess the security answer.
13. Markov Chains Attacks
It’s one of the most dangerous password cracking techniques used by hackers. In Markov Chains Attacks, hackers assemble a specific password database. They first split passwords into 2 to 3 long character syllables and then develop a new alphabet. So, the technique mainly relies on matching different sets of passwords until it finds the original password. It’s pretty much similar to the dictionary attack, but it’s much more advanced than that.
14. Hybrid Dictionary
This one is the result of both Dictionary and brute force attacks. It first follows the rules of a dictionary attack, in which it takes the words listed on the dictionary and then combines them with brute force. However, the Hybrid Dictionary attack takes a longer time to complete because it tries every dictionary word. The hybrid dictionary is also known as a Rule-based dictionary attack.
15. Spidering
It is another method that is used by hackers to crack passwords. Again, the spidering attack depends on brute force. On spidering, hackers grab all informational words that were connected to the business. For example, hackers use the words connected to the company like competitors website names, website sales material, studying corporate, etc. After grabbing those details, they execute a brute force attack.
16. Keyloggers
Well, Keyloggers are a famous threat in the security world. Keyloggers are the trojan horse that logs everything you type through the keyboard, including the passwords. The worst thing about keyloggers is that there are plenty of keyboard-logging hardware devices available on the internet, which can record every keystroke. So, Keylogger is another password cracking technique that is widely used by hackers.
17. Password Reset
Nowadays, hackers find it much easier to reset passwords than to guess them. Hackers usually get around the typical Windows Protections, and they use a bootable version of Linux to mount the NTFS volumes. By mounting NTFS Volumes, it helps hackers to locate and reset the admin password. Just think for a moment that you have forgotten the Windows Password; you can easily recover it through your Microsoft account or Command Prompt. The same thing hackers do to hack into the systems. So, these are some of the popular password-cracking techniques used by hackers. I hope this article helped you! Please share it with your friends also.
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