Simple Brute Force

A Simple Brute Force attack is a basic form of password cracking where an attacker attempts to guess a password by trying every possible combination of characters until the correct one is found. It's a straightforward and exhaustive method that doesn't rely on any prior knowledge of the password.

While simple brute force attacks are time-consuming, they are guaranteed to succeed eventually—assuming the attacker has unlimited time and computational resources. These attacks are more effective against short or poorly designed passwords.

Variants

Although simple brute force is inherently one technique, attackers may modify it slightly:

• Case-sensitive brute force: Includes uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols to expand the keyspace.
• Incremental attack: Begins with short passwords and gradually increases length.

Impact

If successful, simple brute force attacks can grant unauthorized access to user accounts, systems, or encrypted data. The effectiveness depends on password strength and system rate-limiting protections. Weak systems with poor security policies are most vulnerable.

Discoverability

These attacks are highly discoverable due to repeated failed login attempts. Systems with proper monitoring and alerting can quickly detect them. Lockout policies, CAPTCHAs, and throttling help prevent this kind of attack.

Tools

• Hydra: Used for online brute force attempts across many protocols.
• John the Ripper: Often used for brute forcing password hashes offline.