Dictionary · Hacking Techniques and Methodologies
Brute-Force Attack
Identity attacks · Intermediate
Trying many possible secrets exhaustively, such as every short password, until one works or the space runs out. Rate limits and long secrets make it impractical.
Short secrets fall because the number of possibilities is small. A long unique password plus a second factor moves the problem out of practical range for an online login.
Example: An online form locks the account after five failures, so an exhaustive guessing run cannot continue.
Common misconception
- Exhaustive guessing is not the same as trying a list of common words. The list approach has its own name.