The Relationship between Password Characters and Guesses Required Using a Self-Developed Brute Force Hacking Program

Overview

Objectives/Goals This study measured the variation in number of guesses required for different types of passwords using a brute-force program I created and modified on scratch, a computer coding website. Methods/Materials Materials: Laptop computer with self-developed Scratch program, online character randomizer (Random Letter Sequence Generator: www.dave-reed.com) Used a website to generate random passwords of a given length and create lists of 25 passwords for each category containing various numbers and types of characters. Compared average number of guesses required for each type of password using self-developed Scratch program. This program was created by modifying an existing program on Scratch that determined password strength. The modifications I made were: 1) Expanded the original program into seven categories for each type of password; 2) Changed the variables and lists to match those within each category; 3) Added a counter to display total number of guesses required for each password; 4) Added function to allow user to choose designated password character category before entering password. Number of guesses for each password were recorded and averages taken for each category. Averages were then compared to a previously predicted number based on the formula: number of possible characters^digits. Results The results of the study showed a positive, exponential relationship between the number of possible characters and the average number of guesses required. The passwords with more possible characters were most secure, and the passwords with fewer possible characters were less secure. The results closely matched the predicted values using the formula: number of possible characters^digits. My hypothesis was supported. Conclusions/Discussion Every decade we become more reliant on technology, but as we become more adept at using it, hackers threaten to compromise our security. My study and the ease with which my program guessed passwords confirms the necessity of higher level security precautions for computers other than passwords. Furthermore, it demonstrates the overall fallibility of passwords, especially given our human tendency to select those that are most easy to remember, and therefore most easy to hack.

Awards (1)

• Third Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2017 Mathematical Sciences · Entry J1506

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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