1. Elijah Hursey & Austin Keener Academy of Science Summer Bridge 2013
Password Cracking
Elijah Hursey & Austin Keener
Academy of Science
Summer Bridge 2013

2. Contents:
Encryption
Brute Force
Rainbow Tables
Dictionary Cracking

3. Encryption: Passwords are stored as ‘hash’
Hash is an encrypted version of your password
MD5 and SHA are popular but vulnerable
B-crypt much stronger encryption
Protection depends on encryption software as well as your individual password

4. Brute Force:
Every possible combination of letters, symbols, and numbers
Effective but with longer passwords may take a very long time
Process is accelerated with better hardware.
Can also be simplified with the use of rainbow tables

5. Dictionary Cracking: Modified form of Brute force
Uses words instead of random combinations
These attacks can be countered by using numbers and symbols

6. Rainbow Tables: Does not store all possible combinations
Combinations stored in chains
Only beginning and end of chain are stored
This method of storage allows for faster cracking speeds without needing to have terabytes of storage space to store every possible combination

8. Acknowledgements: Dr. Alexander D. Schwab Dr. Jennifer Burris
Mr. David Sitar
Dr. Cindy Norris
Dr. Rahman Tashakkori
Appalachian State University
Academy of Science
Summer Bridge Program
National Science Foundation

9. References:
"Mieux coder." Mieux coder RSS. 27 July 2013 <
"OPHCRACK
(the time-memory-trade-off-cracker)." Ophcrack. 27 July 2013
<