Final answer:
A brute force attack is often referred to as an exhaustive attack, as it systematically tries every possible combination of passwords until the correct one is found.
Step-by-step explanation:
The type of password attack that is often referred to as an exhaustive attack is a brute force attack. A brute force attack involves systematically trying every possible combination of passwords until the correct one is found. This method can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, as it requires testing a large number of possibilities.
For example, if a password consists of four characters, each character having 26 possibilities (a-z), then there would be a total of 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 = 456,976 possible combinations to test. The attacker would need to try all of these combinations until the correct password is found.
Unlike a dictionary attack which relies on commonly used passwords or phrases, a brute force attack is not limited to a predefined list, making it more exhaustive