Brute force is a method of cyberattack in which the bad actors try to crack the login credentials by repeatedly trying out random combinations of characters until any of them gets validated and they get access to the account. Hackers use brute force when they have no data or exploit to base their attack on. This is one of the slowest and most inefficient ways of cyberattack. Although brute force attacks might appear simple, failing to defend against them can result in significant security issues. If successful, these attacks can pave the way for more severe threats, such as ransomware attacks and credential theft.
Brute force attacks have gained a significant rise with the development of better hardware and software that can process through millions of credentials in seconds. The lack of complexity of brute force does not mean it always fails. This attack can be used to exploit weaker websites or accounts that have shorter passwords.
Accessing a single credential by spending hours might not seem like much. However, if the one hacked account is a privileged account with access to sensitive data and the permissions to edit or delete said data, the other accounts will not have to be brute forced and their access can also be controlled by the hijacked privileged account. This is the initial stage of a data breach, which will go on to supply the necessary information to carry out other attacks like credential stuffing and password spraying.
Though brute force attacks do not cause huge losses for organizations on their own, they create opportunities for other cyberattacks to take place. With security breaches costing organizations millions of dollars every year, it becomes important to shut down any openings that can lead to one.
Brute force attacks operate on the principle of exhaustive trial and error. Attackers use automated software or scripts to generate a massive number of successive guesses for passwords or encryption keys. These guesses typically start from the simplest combinations and gradually increase in complexity until the correct password or key is discovered, and providing the attacker access to the account.
The process of guessing the credentials of the user at random is impractical and will take a heavy toll on the systems used to perform brute force attacks. This can be simplified with more data at the hands of the attacker. With the type of data the attacker uses, brute force attacks can be classified into four different types.
Dictionary attack: If the attacker has a set of common phrases that people use, they can use that set first before relying on random computer generated strings. Since people tend to use things that they can easily remember as their passwords, this is a much easier method to narrow down the credentials.
Password spraying: Commonly used passwords like "password1234" can also have a higher chance of being the credential the attacker needs.
Credential cracking: In some cases, credentials leaked recently in major data breaches can be used. Considering their relevancy, they have a higher chance of being used commonly than common passwords that are older and have been phased out.
Credential stuffing: If an attacker manages to crack a user's credentials for one service, they will try to use the same in other services. This is because people often only remember a certain set of unique information, after which they will tend to reuse it for all of their other accounts' password requirements. With this method, a successful login on one service can potentially compromise several others, increasing the impact of a single breach.
You can prevent your accounts from being brute-forced by implementing the following measures:
Organizations can implement some measures to secure their services and corporate accounts from being affected by brute force attacks:
To strengthen your defense against brute force and other cyber threats, consider implementing ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus, an identity security solution with adaptive MFA and a powerful password policy enhancer. It integrates MFA for your users, devices, and applications to provide an extra layer of security, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access. By implementing strong and granular password policies, mandating MFA, and acting as a secure password manager, ADSelfService Plus can help secure your organizations against these cyberattacks while keeping the entire process user-friendly. Moreover, you can use Have I Been Pwned to ensure that users do not use compromised passwords.
A brute force attack is a method used by hackers to crack passwords or encryption keys by systematically trying all possible combinations until the correct one is found.
Assuming that a typical password is six letters long, a regular computer that tries 30 passwords per second would take more than two years. Add in a hundred GPUs to power the machine and it can be cracked in three days. If you increase the password length to 12, it would take around millions of years, making the entire process impractical.
Signs include a sudden increase in failed login attempts, multiple login attempts from the same IP address, unusual patterns in login times, and unexpected account lockouts.
Brute force attacks are resource-intensive and time-consuming, especially against complex passwords or encryption keys. They rely on the computational power available to the attacker and are less effective against systems with strong password policies and security measures like account lockouts. Typically, to crack a six-letter password in a second, hundreds of GPUs are needed, which can consume more power than what is required to run a regular computer. If you increase it by even two or three characters, the process would require years to complete and constant power supply for the machine, which is not practically possible.
In a brute force attack, all possible combinations of characters are systematically tried. In contrast, a dictionary attack uses a predefined list of commonly used phrases or variations of those phrases to attempt to gain unauthorized access. Dictionary attacks are generally faster but rely on the assumption that the correct password is among the entries in the dictionary list.
The best protection against a brute force attack is to secure your passwords or add in additional authentication factors that can secure your account even if the password is compromised. Some measures that are widely adopted include:
These tools can be used by web developers to simulate brute force attempts on their sites and applications, then fortify against them.
Attackers often use web automations such as Selenium, cURL, and PhantomJS. Some famous tools dedicated to test for and conduct brute force attacks include:
These tools can be used by web developers to simulate brute force attempts on their sites and applications, then fortify against them.
