Blog Post

Graphics Cards are rendering passwords useless

Kordel

Full article can be found at http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/cheap-gpus-are-rendering-strong-passwords-useless/13125

I stumbled upon this interesting (and terrifying) little piece of information while browsing the internet this morning. While I’m not at all surprised by it (I’ve looked into the technology before), what is scary is the level of development and programming surrounding this technique. A year ago it was theoretically possible, but there was not (good) software to support it. Now, and increasingly, any determined tech (even a rookie) could leverage their AMD or NVidia graphics card to crack previously uncrackable passwords in a matter of hours.

Be afraid – be very afraid!

From the ZDNet article…

“Think that your eight-character password consisting of lowercase characters, uppercase characters and a sprinkling of numbers is strong enough to protect you from a brute force attack?

Think again!

Jon Honeyball writing for PC Pro has a sobering piece on how the modern GPU can be leveraged as a powerful tool against passwords once considered safe from bruteforce attack.

Take a cheap GPU (like the Radeon HD 5770) and the free GPU-powered password busting tool called ’ ighashgpu ‘ and you have yourself a lean, mean password busting machine. How lean and mean? Very:

The results are startling. Working against NTLM login passwords, a password of “fjR8n” can be broken on the CPU in 24 seconds, at a rate of 9.8 million password guesses per second. On the GPU, it takes less than a second at a rate of 3.3 billion passwords per second.

Increase the password to 6 characters (pYDbL6), and the CPU takes 1 hour 30 minutes versus only four seconds on the GPU. Go further to 7 characters (fh0GH5h), and the CPU would grind along for 4 days, versus a frankly worrying 17 minutes 30 seconds for the GPU.

It gets worse. Throw in a nine-character, mixed-case random password, and while a CPU would take a mind-numbing 43 years to crack this, the GPU would be done in 48 days.”

End of Article.

Food for thought…

So what means would you suggest to prevent cracking of your crucial passwords? How about a replacement security mechanism – I think Passwords may have to go bye-bye pretty soon!

By Eberly Systems 02 May, 2024
West Lawn, PA, May 2, 2024 — Eberly Systems , the West Lawn-based managed IT services and managed voice provider, today announces its acquisition of the Lebanon-based LYLAB Technology Solutions. Eberly Systems seeks to further a movement of people who are motivated and equipped to make a difference in their world through their daily work. They believe in building lasting partnerships based on trust and transparency while delivering industry-leading solutions to support and protect critical business assets. Driven by the principles of people, excellence, integrity, and stewardship, the team prides itself on partnering with companies to securely, reliably, and efficiently grow their businesses. “We cannot be more excited to join forces with the LYLAB team,” comments Kordel Eberly, Eberly Systems President & Founder. “ The integration of LYLAB Technology Solutions into Eberly Systems solidifies our commitment to providing small businesses with unparalleled service and support. We’re proud of this new opportunity to carefully design and manage the IT infrastructure and systems of even more local businesses and communities.” The acquisition solidifies the Eberly Systems commitment to supporting businesses in Lebanon County. Merging the two teams together as one entity offers the collective team the benefit of enhancing capabilities, refining processes, and extending reach to better serve the evolving needs of small businesses in the surrounding area. Future plans include expanding their presence into Lancaster County.
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