Security Basics mailing list archives

Re: password cracking: one char at a time.

From: Martin Krämer <martin_kraemer2 () freenet de>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:10:32 +0100

Hi all,
    I was wondering if is at all possible to discover a password one
char at a time.


That's not possible for hashed passwords.

The hash functions are built in a way that similar strings are transformed
to entirely different hashes.

i.e. MD5:
t: b7269fa2508548e4032c455818f1e321
te: 08ee1f3976fd6ce68c21f3500400f8eb
tes: 064ef34b174ff14b43acc2e7dce0c9e7
test: d8e8fca2dc0f896fd7cb4cb0031ba249

All practically used hash functions share this important property and
practically all passwords are stored in a hashed form.

Such a decryption scheme would only work for character-wise encryption
like a Caesar or Vigenere cryptosystem and not on a hash.

Greetings,
Martin Krämer

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Current thread:

password cracking: one char at a time. michael young (Nov 21)
- Re: password cracking: one char at a time. Martin Krämer (Nov 22)
- Re: password cracking: one char at a time. Saqib Ali (Nov 22)
- Re: password cracking: one char at a time. Kurt Buff (Nov 22)
- Re: password cracking: one char at a time. Ansgar -59cobalt- Wiechers (Nov 22)
- Re: password cracking: one char at a time. Gilbert Fernandes (Nov 22)
  - Password Cracker tools Louie (Nov 23)
    - Re: Password Cracker tools Saqib Ali (Nov 24)
    - Re: Password Cracker tools Jason Thompson (Nov 24)
    - Re: Password Cracker tools nodecapatal (Nov 24)
    - RE: Password Cracker tools Aditya Deshmukh (Nov 24)
    - Re: Password Cracker tools Bhavatosh (Nov 24)

(Thread continues...)