DICTIONARY ATTACK Definition & Meaning

dictionary attack

noun

Computers.

an attempt to break into a password-protected computer or computer system with a software program that successively tries all the words in a large dictionary or other word list.
an attempt by a spammer to obtain a list of valid email addresses by testing possible usernames in combination with a domain name.

dictionary attack

noun

an attempt to hack into a computer or network by submitting every word in a dictionary as a possible password

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of dictionary attack¹

First recorded in 1985–90

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

They compare the method to a “dictionary attack” against passwords, where a hacker runs a pre-generated list of common passwords against a security system.

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"The algorithm MD5 is considered to be weak, and for the vast majority of passwords it is easy to reverse what it was using what we call a dictionary attack," said Prof Alan Woodward, a security expert from Surrey University.

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“We basically tried a dictionary attack,” Ben Winiger, 16, of Johnson City, Tenn., said as he typed a new command into John The Ripper, a software tool that helps test and break passwords.

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But because they use cryptographic hashes to obscure those words, the computing power to run a dictionary attack has long been unavailable to most users.

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Pretty easy to remember, but tough for a dictionary attack to guess.

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