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Crypto tool predicts password cracking time |
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Source: H Security - Posted by Anthony Pell
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Instead of indicating password quality via coloured bars, the Windows crypto tool Thor's Godly Privacy (TGP) informs users about the estimated time required for a successful brute-force attack on the chosen password. TGP calculates the time from the number of iterations a brute-force tool would need to arrive at the correct character combination.
The calculation is based on a Class F attack with a throughput of 1 billion passwords per second and a key space of 96 that contains all lower and upper case letters as well as all numbers and special characters, brackets etc (961 + 962 + 963 + 964 + ...). However, TGP not only returns the time required for trying out the entire key space, it also gives an estimated time for the specific password in question; 10 × the letter A differs considerably from 10 tildes.
This way, the tool impressively demonstrates that the length of a password is more important for its resilience than the complexity – if we disregard simple long passwords such as "Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia" that can be cracked via dictionary attacks. Developer Timothy "Thor" Mullen thinks that the displayed information gives users a better idea than green and red bars or quality indicators such as "good", "medium" or "bad".
Read this full article at H Security
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