Password Cracking Techniques — Brute Force, Dictionary, Rainbow Tables

Password Cracking Methods Explained

Brute Force

Try every possible combination. A 6-char lowercase password: 26^6 = 308 million combos. Modern GPUs crack this in seconds!

Dictionary Attack

Use wordlists of common passwords (rockyou.txt has 14 million). Much faster than brute force for common passwords.

Rainbow Tables

Pre-computed hash-to-password lookup tables. Instead of computing hashes, just look them up. Defeated by salted hashes.

Tools

• John the Ripper: CPU-based cracker
• Hashcat: GPU-based (100x faster)
• Hydra: Online brute-force (SSH, HTTP, etc.)

Strong Password Rules

12+ characters, mix of upper/lower/numbers/symbols, unique per site, use a password manager. Enable 2FA everywhere!