Understanding Brute Force Attacks

Passwords serve as the sole barrier protecting your data from malicious attacks. Brute force attacks exploit this single line of defense through relentless trial and error. Read ahead to find out more about brute force attacks.

What Is a Brute Force Attack?

A brute force attack is a trial-and-error method that guesses login credentials by systematically trying every possible combination until it finds the correct one. Unlike more sophisticated attacks or hacking techniques that exploit software vulnerabilities, brute force attacks rely on computational power and repeated attempts rather than accuracy.

Brute force attacks rely on the idea that given enough attempts, an attacker can eventually guess many passwords, especially weaker ones. 

Modern computing power has made this threat even more serious. Attackers can now test millions of password combinations per second using specialized tools.

This level of attack requires proper protection. ER Tech Pros offers comprehensive protection for your business systems against brute force attacks and more. 

Types of Brute Force Attacks

Attackers use various brute-force techniques to gain access to systems. Some of them are:

• Simple Brute Force Attacks:

These involve systematically trying every possible character combination to unlock a system until they find a match is found. It can involve making a billion password guesses per second, and simple passwords like ‘123456789’ or ‘0123456789’ can be cracked with this technique. A good password length with complexity and at least 11 characters can prevent such attacks. 

• Dictionary Attacks:

Dictionary attacks use preprepared lists of common passwords, words, and phrases rather than random combinations, since most people choose predictable passwords like "password123" or "qwerty."

• Hybrid Brute Force Attacks:

This is a combination of dictionary and simple brute force attacks. Hybrid brute-force attacks take common words and append numbers or symbols. For example, "password" becomes "password1", "P@ssword", etc. 

• Credential Stuffing:

Credential stuffing uses username-password pairs leaked from previous data breaches. It bets on the idea that people reuse passwords across multiple sites. This kind of brute force attack is particularly dangerous because it enables lateral movement, exposing multiple systems at once. 

• Reverse Brute Force Attacks:

Reverse brute force attacks start with a known password, which is often leaked or common enough to guess. Then test the password against different usernames or accounts. In this case, they know the password and have to guess the username.  

Why Are Brute Force Attacks So Dangerous?

Brute force attacks can prove to be dangerous for your business for several obvious reasons:

• One successful attack is all it takes to further infiltrate a network and modify access controls. Once in, the attacker can do as they please: install keyloggers, malware, spyware, and other tools to gain further access.
• Attackers need only patience and a few tools to launch an attack, rather than advanced technical skills. This makes the barrier to entry low enough for anyone to achieve.  
• Automated tools and botnets can run thousands of attempts simultaneously across many accounts or systems, enhancing the attack's scalability. 
• Once an attacker cracks a password, they often gain legitimate-looking access, making their activity harder to distinguish from that of a real user. This is also what makes brute force attacks invisible until it is too late. 
• Your organization is only as strong as its weakest link. One weak password can compromise an entire network.

How Do Brute Force Attacks Work?

Attackers use automated tools to launch brute force attacks. The dark web offers products such as malware toolkits and compromised credentials to assist hybrid brute-force attacks or credential-stuffing campaigns.

Once the attacker configures their tools and seeds them with the lists, the attack can be launched.

Botnets consist of compromised host systems harnessed to supply distributed computing power without the knowledge or authorization of their primary owners. Similar to malware toolkits, pre-configured botnet packages are readily available for purchase on dark web marketplaces.

Tools Used for Brute Force Attacks

Attempting to guess a target’s social media or email account credentials manually is often a difficult, time-consuming task, particularly when longer passwords are used. Cybercriminals use specialized password-cracking tools and software to speed up the process. Some of these tools are: 

• John the Ripper

This password-cracking tool was originally developed to identify weak passwords. It supports password hashes from Windows, Unix, and macOS, as well as formats used by databases, web applications, private keys, and document files. 

• Hashcat

Known as one of the fastest password recovery tools, leveraging GPU acceleration for offline hash cracking.

• Aircrack-ng

Primarily used for auditing Wi-Fi network security, including WPA/WPA2 key cracking.

Security professionals also use these tools legitimately for penetration testing and password auditing. But the same capabilities that make them useful for defenders make them dangerous in the wrong hands.

How to Prevent Brute Force Attacks

To effectively counter password-targeted brute force attacks, passwords must be as strong as possible. End users play a critical role in safeguarding both personal and organizational data by adopting good password hygiene. 

Creating complex credentials increases the time and computational effort required for attackers to guess them, often discouraging further attempts.

Some practices that prevent attacks are: 

• Use long, unique passwords (11+ characters) for every account.
• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever available; this alone can stop most brute-force attacks, even if an attacker cracks a password.
• Avoid reusing passwords across sites to limit damage from credential stuffing.

• Enforce account lockout policies that temporarily lock accounts after a set number of failed attempts.
• Implement firewall as a service (FWaaS) across your organization to maintain a centralized cloud infrastructure.  
• Use CAPTCHA on login forms to block automated tools.
• Monitor and alert on unusual login patterns, such as many failed attempts or logins from unfamiliar locations.
• Conduct regular password audits and enforce password complexity requirements to catch weak credentials before attackers do.

How Can ER Tech Pros Prevent Brute Force Attacks?

ER Tech Pros offers comprehensive cybersecurity services that protect your business from malicious attacks. 

We employ 27 years of expertise in IT infrastructure and cybersecurity operations to help organizations manage complex cloud environments. This helps enhance security oversight across applications, endpoints, users, and remote networks. Such a robust security network significantly reduces the likelihood of malicious attacks, such as brute force attacks.

Take the First Step Towards the Protection of Your Business

Brute force attacks remain effective because attackers have learned to exploit human behavior to their advantage. The good news is that defenses are well understood and highly effective: strong, unique passwords, MFA, rate limiting, and proper hashing can neutralize the vast majority of brute force attempts. 

The organizations that get breached are usually the ones that skip the basics, thinking they are inessential.