Authentication

Front 1

What is it, mechanism used to enforce it

Back 1

The process of confirming the corectness of the claimed identity either for users or devices.

Can be something you know (passwords)

Something you have (token)

Something you are (biometrics)

Front 2

Static and Dynamic Passwords

Back 2

Static: doesn't change for each log on (should be changed at frequent intervals for security

Dynamic: Changes with each login e.g. a one-time password

Front 3

Dictionary Attack

Back 3

Dictionary attempts to crack a password by using a text file full of dictionary words and checking them against the encrypted password until a match is found.

If simple passwords are used this could successfully work. If a complex attack is used a dictionary attack would not work.

Front 4

Brute Force Attacks

Back 4

Attempts all possible combinations against encrypted password. It can be the best option against short passwords but takes an incredibly long time depending on length of complexity of password.

Front 5

Hybrid Attack

Back 5

A dictionary attack which replaces commonly replaced letters with their numerical or symbolic equivalent e.g. replacing the letter A in a word to a 4 or @

Front 6

Rainbow Tables

Back 6

Precomputed tables reduce the difficulty in brute-force cracking a password by creating a large pre-generated data set of passwords and their corresponding hashed value.

Then using that table to look up a hashed password for a match.

Main benefit is that while the actual creation of the tables take much more time than cracking a single hash, after table is generated they can be reused over and over.