Password Salt

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Synopsis: Make a password more complicated by adding simple mutations.


Limiting a brute force password search to alphanumeric characters makes the job of the password cracker too easy. The introduction of non-alphanumeric characters in a sequence of letters and numbers can consisiderably increase the search space for brute force attackers.

The addition of even a single non-numeric character to a password can prevent simple exhaustive dictionary or dictionary pair attacks from succeeding. Character substitition schemes, such as subsituting "!" for "i", or "@" for "a", can similarly complicate such strategies.

Therefore, add an easily remembered non-alphanumeric sequence to your most cherished password. Try to vary it so that if one is compromised, all your passwords are not.


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Contributors: Anonymous Contributor

Copyright (©) 2007 Dirk Riehle. Some rights reserved. (Creative Commons License BY-NC-SA.) Original Web Location: http://www.riehle.org