Wpa Password Meaning
Francisco Harner
Today, a person may have dozens, or even over a hundred, personal passwords to manage. In organizations, this number may be even higher, and also include embedded passwords within applications. The sheer number of passwords to manage generally means that, when left to humans, password practices are inadequately followed. Poor password hygiene, in turn, creates opportunities for malware and hacker exploits.
Password Managers are software applications that enforce best practices for generating and securing passwords (such as by using encryption). By using a master password/key, the user can prompt the password manager to automatically pull the correct password from a database and authenticate into a system/software via form filling. Password managers can be cloud or browser-based, or could reside on the desktop.
Attackers and malware covet passwords, which allow them to access the desired resource, steal data and identities, and wreak havoc. The combination of poor password practices by users, inadequate password security controls, and automated password cracking hacker tools increase the risk of password theft or exposure. Here are some common credential exploit tactics:
Repeatedly testing a password, potentially generating millions of random guesses per second, with combinations of characters (numbers, letters, and symbols) until one matches. The more mathematically complex a password, the more difficult to crack.
While similar to PtH, these involve copying Kerberos tickets and passing them on for lateral access across systems. A Golden Ticket attack is a variation of pass-the-ticket, involving theft of the krbtgt account on a domain controller, which encrypts ticket-granting tickets (TGT).
A password is a string of characters used to verify the identity of a user during the authentication process. Passwords are typically used in tandem with a username; they are designed to be known only to the user and allow that user to gain access to a device, application or website. Passwords can vary in length and can contain letters, numbers and special characters.
A password is a simple application of challenge-response authentication, using a verbal, written or typed code to satisfy the challenge request. The order and variety of characters are often what determines the difficulty, or security strength, of a given password. That is why security systems often require users to create passwords that use at least one capital letter, number and symbol. For a password to be an effective security mechanism, its details must be kept secret. Otherwise, unauthorized users could gain access to the files and securities one is trying to protect.
Passwords, when carefully created and protected, increase safe and secure interactions online and in the workplace and can prevent password cracking. To maximize the strength and efficacy of passwords, organizations often establish password policies. These policies are designed to help users create strong passwords and adopt best practices for managing login credentials. Below are a few examples of the practices that contribute to effective password management and creation:
The most important components of strong passwords include sufficient length and a mix of character types. Security experts recommend using passphrases that combine several words and interchange numbers and symbols but are still fairly easy to remember. For example, the phrase "my hobby is buying shoes online" can convert to "Myho88y!$ buYing$HO3$ 0nlin3."
Security practitioners also recommend using the first letter of each word in a long sentence to create a complex string, again replacing some letters with numbers and symbols. For example, "I spend all my money in the shoe department at Nordstrom because their shoes are great" can convert to "I$@MM1TSD@N8T$AG."
Random password generators and password management tools can also produce complex passwords and remember them for users. Despite vulnerabilities that sometimes surface in password managers, the security community recommends their use.
Users and businesses should strive to eliminate common password vulnerabilities that threat actors tend to look for. With social media being more present than ever before, any recognizable personal information can be easily obtained by a persistent cybercriminal. Common weaknesses include:
The SolarWinds hack that emerged in late 2020 showed how cybercriminals can compromise weak passwords. Instead of performing an elaborate attack, the Russia-backed hackers simply guessed the password "solarwinds123," which proved to be the password to the company's update server. This allowed the attackers to hide a virus in SolarWinds' Orion software update, which was later shipped to its clients and compromised them as well.
Strong passwords don't just depend on the code or the individual; they also depend on the expiration date. Corporate password policies often place an expiration date on their users' passcodes, forcing users to replace old passwords with new ones. Password time periods commonly span 90 to 180 days. Sophisticated password creation systems may also force users to create new passwords that don't share major similarities to their previous iterations.
Passwordless authentication has emerged to help eliminate the complexities and vulnerabilities of traditional passwords. This method is especially beneficial for users on mobile devices or social platforms. Instead of creating a unique password, users receive a one-time authentication code via a text message, email or other messaging alert or service. The code allows users to log in automatically.
Also, it fixes an issue where the System Preferences panel would not unlock after a user enters their password in some cases, as well as a bug that sometimes prevented changes made to Apple ProRAW images from saving.
One-time passwords (aka One-time passcodes) are a form of strong authentication, providing much better protection to eBanking, corporate networks, and other systems containing sensitive data.
Robust authentication systems address the limitations of static passwords by incorporating an additional security credential, such as a temporary one-time password (OTP), to protect network access and end-users' digital identities.
They are inherently more secure than other OTP tokens because they generate a unique, non-reusable password for each authentication event, store personal data, and do not transmit confidential or private data over the network.
Stronger authentication can also be implemented with two-factor authentication (2FA) or multiple-factor authentication. In these cases, the user provides two (or more) different authentication factors.
I recently set snmp configuration and encounter a problem.When I uncheck 'password is a key',the result will be test successful.Otherwise,it will be test failed.Could someone please tell me what does 'password is a key' mean?
Simple answer/Generalization: Different devices read in different formats. It is similar to video file encoding. Some files are supported naturally on Windows Media Player (like MP4s). To play other files on Windows Media Player. (like MKVs) you need to download CODECs for the files to work. The same concept applies to the devices running SNMPv3.
SNMPv3 keys are usually written in ASCII. A majority of machines you run across will handle information written in ASCII. For different reasons (cheap manufacturer or type encryption used), some machines won't process ASCII the way you want. The machines that don't use ASCII keys, encrypt data differently into "Blocks". Depending on the equipment you are using and the mode of encryption the device runs, you may need to click the "Password is a key" check box to create a unique key for the local device. Because of the encryption mode or because of the manufacture's decision, ASCII might not work.
An example: some people might say "Use AES-128" when encrypting data. AES-128 is a broad term. There are 5 modes/versions of AES-128. They are ECB, CBC, CFB, OFB, & CTR. On some equipment, you might see something like CFB-AES-128 listed when you are choosing an encryption type. CFB is fairly common and is only compatible with CFB. For CFB, you would simply use a password in SolarWinds for it to work. On the other hand, if your equipment supported OFB-AES-128, you would need to click "Password is a key" for it to work. The encryption mode works differently, and ASCII strings don't necessarily work for OFB.
I somehow missed this. Thanks for the explanation @Fred.Loucks I wasn't super clear myself and learned a bit too. From the SolarWinds perspective, we don't really have a recommendation on how to configure the SNMP v3 authentication, we just try to support what our customers are running.
As a side note, I'll link a Success Center knowledge base article as well, as it gives our recommendations across the platform for secure configurations. This isn't specifically cited in the article, but there are other recommendations you might find useful.
I was wondering how easy it would be to crack a password-protected RAR5 file, and I found many answers along the lines of "a truly random password would be much more difficult to crack than a password based on real words". Also, a lot of answers refer to password randomness.
I know that passwords based on real words are easily cracked by dictionary attacks and probably this is what those answers refer to, but I'm still not clear about what "random" means in the context of password creation, for the following reason.
Even if I generate a sequence of characters using the best "randomizer" ever, the chances that I get HelloWorld and the chances that I get f.ex. gkwwpBnePU are in my understanding exactly the same, so does "random" in this context mean "as distant as possible from any real word"? But if yes, doesn't this make the password not-so-random after all?
The thought that started my doubt - which I believe is the same concept but I'm not sure - is: if I choose a password which is a real word but from an obscure dialect of a very uncommon language whose dictionary no attackers would feed to their cracking tools, would such password still be more crackable than gkwwpBnePU? (assuming of course that gkwwpBnePU isn't actually a real word in any language, see what I mean?).
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