What are Password Vulnerabilities?

What are Password Vulnerabilities?

Password vulnerabilities mean that the person creates a password for a website account, and the password that is created is weak, such as 1234, 4321, or his date of birth. In that case, hackers easily crack the password, access our website accounts, and steal sensitive information. We secure a password by putting strong passwords with a combination of letters, numbers, or any special characters, and the length of the password varies from 8 to 16. Using multi-factor authentication also resolves the password risk....

Vulnerabilities in Password-Based Login

As we all know, a password is a collection of letters, symbols, and special characters. When we need to log in to any of the websites, accounts, etc., we first create the login credentials, which include an email ID, username, or password. The good thing is that on many websites, when we create a password that includes 1234 or 4321, it automatically gives a restriction to create a password that includes at least one uppercase or lowercase letter and any special characters, and the length of the password is between 8 and 16. If the hackers easily guess the password and crack it, then they steal our sensitive information....

Brute Force Attack

Brute force attacks are part of password vulnerabilities. Hackers crack the password by using brute force. They guess multiple combinations, such as letters with numbers or letters with dates of birth. When they crack the password successfully, they can easily access our accounts and steal sensitive information....

Dictionary Attack

A dictionary attack is a combination of words and phrases. Hackers try passwords such as the names of movie characters, pet characters, and people’s relatives. If using these techniques, they crack the password successfully, and in that case, they steal our sensitive information. In the dictionary attack, hackers mostly targeted financial institutions and e-commerce sites to steal sensitive information. In this attack, hackers use a leaked password that was previously used to make the attack successful....

Man-in-the-middle Attack

Man-in-the-middle attacks include users, attackers, or third parties, which means the attacks come either from users, hackers, or any third-party person who steals our sensitive information. They send an email that looks real. They convince the user to click the website link, and the website link looks authentic. When the user clicks the link and enters the credential, the hacker can easily access it and hack the user’s account....

Spidering Attack

In a spidering attack, hackers targeted businesses and corporate offices. Using spidering techniques, hackers know that the companies use passwords related to their company name so that employees don’t forget the password. In that case, hackers can easily crack the password and access the company’s sensitive information. For example, the company name is XYZ, their password is XYZ@1234. So, hackers easily guessed it and cracked the password successfully....

Guessing the Password

The best hack for hackers is guessing password cracking. Hackers guess the password randomly, like people, relatives, family names, pets, or hobbies. Even if the password is like 123456 or its reverse, they easily crack it and steal sensitive information....

Credential Stuffing

This attack is focused on the username and password. Users go to the website and first create the password and username. In most situations, the user puts the username and password the same, such as putting the username as user123 and the password name as user123. In that scenario, hackers easily guessed it and cracked the password successfully....

How to Avoid Password Vulnerabilities?

The password should be complex, with a mixture of uppercase, lowercase, and any special characters. Many websites automatically tell when the password is weak or strong. The length of the strong password is at least 8 to 16 characters....

Conclusion

With technology increasing rapidly, cyber security provides various security tools that protect our passwords. We can use a password manager tool to protect ourselves from password mishandeling & risk connected with it. We can use techniques like strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, fingerprints, and face recognition to protect ourselves from password vulnerabilities....

Frequently Asked Questions on Password Vulnerabilities – FAQ’s

Define password hashing?...