What is dictionary attack?
With a dictionary attack, the program tries every word in a dictionary or multiple-dictionaries until your password is found. This method is popular because it is well known that many people use common words as passwords. Dictionaries with hundreds of thousands of words, as well as specialist, technical and foreign language dictionaries are available, as are lists of thousands of words that are often used as passwords such as “qwerty”, “abcdef” etc. A few good ones are available from our Password Recovery Software page.
Dictionary Attack uses a dictionary. Password Crackers will try every word from the dictionary as a password. A good dictionary (also known as a word list) is more than just a dictionary, e.g. you will not find the word “qwerty” in the ordinary dictionary but it will surely be included into a good word list. Indeed, this combination of characters is commonly used as a password. Dictionary Attack is usually quite fast. Noticeable delays are possible only if the dictionary is very large. However, the password can be recovered only in case it is present in the dictionary. The probability that this assumption is true is not, in fact, high. Nevertheless, since Dictionary Attack doesn’t take much time, it is recommended to try it before proceeding to the slow Brute Force Attack. There is a variant of this method called Hybrid Dictionary Attack that significantly increases the probability of success. In this case, the password cracker checks all words in the dictionary along with its variatio
