Question

During a recent network attack, a hacker used rainbow tables to guess network passwords. Which type of attack occurred?

A) Social engineering attack
B) Brute force password attack
C) Privilege escalation
D) Denial-of-service attack

Answer 1

The attack that occurred is a brute force password attack, whereby the hacker systematically tries all possible combinations of passwords until the correct one is found. Rainbow tables are precomputed tables that assist in quickly determining the actual password.

Step-by-step explanation:

The attack that occurred is a brute force password attack. A brute force attack involves systematically trying all possible combinations of passwords until the correct one is found. Rainbow tables are precomputed tables containing the hash values of commonly used passwords. By comparing the hash value of a stolen password to the values in the rainbow table, the hacker can quickly determine the actual password.