Post by Joe MacBain on Feb 22, 2007 8:55:30 GMT -5
Passwords
Okay, we know what they do but the real question is how they can do it. It’s usually one out of two cases. One, your administrators or global moderators did it; we will cover that later, or 2 your password was found out by a someone else, and your account taken over. Let’s think for a minute. Your password was found out. Why? Was it a good password? Where did you go wrong? Lets find out.
Ask yourselves these questions:
Was your password your birthday?
Was it just 5-6 letters?
Did it begin with a vowel?
Was it just numbers?
Was it just letters?
Was a a type of word, something that made sence what so ever?
Was it your pet, something in someone close to you could guess, or part of your name?
Have a few gasps? If any of those questions were yes, that is why you were cracked. If not, the password was still simple enough to be cracked with a cracker.
How to crack a password?
It’s not really that hard. All to need is the right tools: Some brains, knowledge of the person you are trying to crack, and a good password cracker.
We already went over knowing the person, but what’s a password cracker? There are 3 types: A Brute Force Wordlist, Brute Force Password Generator, and a Dictionary Cracker.
The Brute Force Wordlist Cracker has a word list with hundreds if not thousands of words on it. Most of the time the Brute Force is used to crack numeral passwords, but it does just fine with words. It try’s to login under your name quietly using all of the passwords on the word list.
The next one is the Dictionary Cracker. It try’s to login using all the words in the dictionary. NEVER use a word in the dictionary in your password.
And last is the Brute Force Password Generator. This one is the worst and most dangerous. It starts with 4 letter words. Using AAAA then AAAB then AAAC and so on. After 5 or 6 hours it might just get your password if it tomw tomx “tomy”. It If it fails in the 4 letter words, once it gets to ZZZZ it will reboot going to 5 letter words: AAAAA, AAAAB, and so on.
It also eventually cracks your password if it’s a number password too.
“Well what do I do?” “Am I not safe?” “This thing will always crack my password!” No it will not always crack your password. You will eventually be safe with enough work. Only if you are willing to go through with it.
How can you prevent your password from being cracked?
It’s not that hard, just painstaking. Your password should use numbers and letters, have lower case and capital, and have “~!@#$%^&*()_+” in them(If you can that is).
If you really want your password to be safe make it about 14 characters if allowed. If not allowed, make it as many characters as it will allow.
What you can also do, is use a Password Generator. This will generate a password using the strangth you choose(I suggest you use 14 or 20).
Try out your password with a Password Meter. It will tell you weather it is strong or not.
Hotmail has a great one here: accountservices.passport.net/reg.srf?id=2&sl=1&lc=1033
Go there to test out your password.
A good password will take months to crack, so juse remember to change your password every 2-3 weeks.
Okay, we know what they do but the real question is how they can do it. It’s usually one out of two cases. One, your administrators or global moderators did it; we will cover that later, or 2 your password was found out by a someone else, and your account taken over. Let’s think for a minute. Your password was found out. Why? Was it a good password? Where did you go wrong? Lets find out.
Ask yourselves these questions:
Was your password your birthday?
Was it just 5-6 letters?
Did it begin with a vowel?
Was it just numbers?
Was it just letters?
Was a a type of word, something that made sence what so ever?
Was it your pet, something in someone close to you could guess, or part of your name?
Have a few gasps? If any of those questions were yes, that is why you were cracked. If not, the password was still simple enough to be cracked with a cracker.
How to crack a password?
It’s not really that hard. All to need is the right tools: Some brains, knowledge of the person you are trying to crack, and a good password cracker.
We already went over knowing the person, but what’s a password cracker? There are 3 types: A Brute Force Wordlist, Brute Force Password Generator, and a Dictionary Cracker.
The Brute Force Wordlist Cracker has a word list with hundreds if not thousands of words on it. Most of the time the Brute Force is used to crack numeral passwords, but it does just fine with words. It try’s to login under your name quietly using all of the passwords on the word list.
The next one is the Dictionary Cracker. It try’s to login using all the words in the dictionary. NEVER use a word in the dictionary in your password.
And last is the Brute Force Password Generator. This one is the worst and most dangerous. It starts with 4 letter words. Using AAAA then AAAB then AAAC and so on. After 5 or 6 hours it might just get your password if it tomw tomx “tomy”. It If it fails in the 4 letter words, once it gets to ZZZZ it will reboot going to 5 letter words: AAAAA, AAAAB, and so on.
It also eventually cracks your password if it’s a number password too.
“Well what do I do?” “Am I not safe?” “This thing will always crack my password!” No it will not always crack your password. You will eventually be safe with enough work. Only if you are willing to go through with it.
How can you prevent your password from being cracked?
It’s not that hard, just painstaking. Your password should use numbers and letters, have lower case and capital, and have “~!@#$%^&*()_+” in them(If you can that is).
If you really want your password to be safe make it about 14 characters if allowed. If not allowed, make it as many characters as it will allow.
What you can also do, is use a Password Generator. This will generate a password using the strangth you choose(I suggest you use 14 or 20).
Try out your password with a Password Meter. It will tell you weather it is strong or not.
Hotmail has a great one here: accountservices.passport.net/reg.srf?id=2&sl=1&lc=1033
Go there to test out your password.
A good password will take months to crack, so juse remember to change your password every 2-3 weeks.