• @RGB3x3
    link
    31 year ago

    Brute forcing and rainbow tables are only useful if a company allows unlimited login attempts or if the attacker gets their hands on a hashed password database.

    But if the company is following good security practices by salting hashes, expiring sessions, and disallowing more than 10 attempts on an account, then there’s little reason to fear.

    And if a company is not using those, then you’d be screwed anyway. Best solution is not to use a password that would show up on a rainbow table and that is resource intensive to brute force the hash for.

    • @emptyother
      link
      41 year ago

      if the attacker gets their hands on a hashed password database.

      This is the easiest and most common way, the primary thing to fear. Thats the main security risk we want to lessen by having a unique password per site. I’d say its so IMPORTANT to have unique passwords that I tell people to discard the old rules about never writing anything down. Write shit down, keep it in a drawer by your computer if needed. I mean, if they get access to that they already got access to just take your entire computer and rob your house, so it doesnt really matter. The important part is not letting strangers faraway on the internet get in because they are harder to catch than a house robber.

      Having a complicated password is “only” the second most important thing because you cant rely on a company’s ability to not be idiots. Or done a human error. You dont want to be screwed if when a single company (of maybe dozens to hundreds) havent hashed and salted correctly.