brute force attack


brute force attack

[¦brüt ¦fȯrs ə′tak] (computer science) An attempt to gain unauthorized access to a computing system by generating and trying all possible passwords.

brute force attack

(cryptography)A method of breaking a cipher (that is, todecrypt a specific encrypted text) by trying every possiblekey. The quicker the brute force attack, the weaker thecipher. Feasibility of brute force attack depends on the keylength of the cipher, and on the amount of computational poweravailable to the attacker. Brute force attack is impossibleagainst the ciphers with variable-size key, such as aone-time pad cipher.

Breaking ciphers with many workstations.

brute force attack

The systematic, exhaustive testing of all possible methods that can be used to break a security system. For example, in cryptanalysis, trying all possible keys in the keyspace to decrypt a ciphertext. See dictionary attack. See also brute force programming.