Attacks & Threats
Dictionary Attack
Also known as: Wordlist attack
Definition
A targeted password-guessing attack that tries entries from a precompiled list of likely words, leaked passwords, and rule-mutated variations.
Examples
- Cracking a leaked password database with rockyou.txt and Hashcat rule files.
- Trying every word from a corporate-themed wordlist against a captured NTLM hash.
Related terms
Brute Force Attack
An attack that systematically tries every possible value — typically passwords, PINs, or keys — until the correct one is found.
Rainbow Table Attack
A precomputation attack that uses chains of hash and reduction functions stored in a compact table to invert unsalted password hashes much faster than brute force.
Credential Stuffing
An automated attack that replays large lists of username/password pairs leaked from one service against other services, exploiting password reuse to take over accounts.
Password Spraying
A low-and-slow attack that tries a small set of common passwords against many user accounts, staying under lockout and rate-limit thresholds.
Password
Password — definition coming soon.
Argon2
A modern memory-hard password hashing function and KDF, winner of the 2015 Password Hashing Competition and specified in RFC 9106.