Brute-Force Attack

A brute-force attack consists of an attack trying many passwords with the hope of eventually guessing correctly. The attack systematically checks all passwords until the correct one is found, carried out by some form of machine or program. The resources required to carry out a brute-force attack increase exponentially with the length of the password. Short passwords can often be brute-forced in a manner of minutes or hours. Longer, more secure passwords can be made prohibitively difficult to crack, as even a password with only lowercase letters but 15 containing 15 characters would take an estimated 1000 years to crack.