Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on March 27, 2007 05:10 AM
Why is it that people feel that switching to key based access is the silver bullet of protection. While I agree that guessing the key would take much longer than a dictionary based userid and password, encryption key based access is not impervious to brute force attacks. Furthermore, while it may indeed take months/years/millennia to exhaust the keyspace, the odds are just as good for the first guess as they are for the last possible guess.
Key based access control systems do nothing to prevent a brute force attack at best they can only delay the inevitable. Programs such as this that identify and then deflect brute force attacks are a better solution than simply assuming that the vast keyspace will protect you. Also, key based access control systems are much less convenient for the user than userid and password. In some cases, key based access control is so inconvenient or impractical that it is unusable. But, userid and passwords on a system that defends itself against bruteforce attacks are perfectly acceptable.
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Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 27, 2007 05:10 AMKey based access control systems do nothing to prevent a brute force attack at best they can only delay the inevitable. Programs such as this that identify and then deflect brute force attacks are a better solution than simply assuming that the vast keyspace will protect you. Also, key based access control systems are much less convenient for the user than userid and password. In some cases, key based access control is so inconvenient or impractical that it is unusable. But, userid and passwords on a system that defends itself against bruteforce attacks are perfectly acceptable.
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