Brute Force Attack

What Is a Brute Force Attack?

An automated trial-and-error attempt to decipher a password or key. In an effort to discover the actual value, brute force assaults use complicated software to overload a system with each possible password or key. Such an attack might theoretically be used to predict any password or key and obtain access to sensitive data. 

The estimated time necessary for a brute force assault to succeed is a vital measure of an encryption system's strength. An efficient brute force attack on a secured system necessitates significant resources. 

This is because the amount of time necessary to predict a password keeps growing (rather than linearly) as the password length increases. As a result, cryptographic keys' bit size has gradually increased from 56 bits to the current standard of 128 or 256 bits. 

Understanding the Full Scope of a Brute Force Attack

Cracking a 256-bit key necessitates massive amounts of computational resources — mostly because major brute force attacks are often limited to supercomputers. In addition, supercomputers demand highly closely controlled environmental conditions and extremely high energy consumption. 

As a result, the most sophisticated brute force attacks are widely assumed to be the domain of state actors. Modern-day GPUs and dedicated servers such as ASICs, on the other hand, are both exceptionally well adapted to password-cracking activities and are available to almost anyone. 

In addition, some encryption methods are potentially immune to brute force attacks. One-time pad cryptography is one of them. Rather than utilizing brute force, unauthorized access to systems protected by this sort of security typically relies on exposing human error in a system's implementation.