Dictionary Attack

In the field of computer security or cryptanalysis, a dictionary attack is defined as a strategy used to defeat an authentication protocol or cipher by using a vast amount of words. Dictionary attacks are typically successful because many individuals choose to implement weak passwords. Passwords that contain seven or fewer characters or single terms found in a dictionary are rather vulnerable to this attack. Dictionary attacks are primary used for two reasons: - to make an attempt at determining a decryption key for a specific piece of ciphertext. - to make an attempt at circumventing an authentication scheme in order to access a computer system. In computer security, a dictionary attack can be tremendously reduced by limiting the amount of authentication attempts that can be made. This may be a number of attempts over a given time frame or blocking attempts after a specific number of failed authentication attempts has been reached.