How to prevent password attacks
Good personal habits and strong security tools and procedures are needed to prevent password attacks. A complete guide to protecting yourself and your company:
Create Strong, Unique Passwords
- This is the foundation. Secure passwords are the first line of defence.
- Long passwords (12+ characters) with a combination of uppercase, lowercase, digits, and symbols are best.
- Avoid repeating sequences, personal information (birthdays, pet names), and dictionary words. Attackers guess these with clever programs.
- Make them special: Never reuse account passwords. A breach at one provider exposes all accounts using that password.
Use MFA
- MFA is one of the best security methods. It offers security beyond passwords.
- After entering your password, you must give a second form of verification, such as a phone code, fingerprint scan, or authenticator app answer.
- Why it matters: Credential stuffing and phishing attempts are less effective because an attacker can’t access your account without the second authentication factor if they acquire your password.
Use Password Manager
- Managing dozens of long, unique passwords is practically impossible for most. Password managers fix this.
- They store all your passwords in an encrypted vault, so you only need to remember one master password. They can generate secure, unique passwords for new accounts automatically.
- Popular alternatives include LastPass, 1Password, Dashlane, and Bitwarden.
Watch Out for Phishing and Social Engineering
- Many password hacks are user-deception rather than hacking.
- Phishing emails: Avoid urgent, misspelt, or sensitive emails. Email password requests from legitimate companies are unusual.
- Check the source: Never click links without checking the sender’s email address and URL. Look for uncommon domain names or misspellings.
Watch for Suspicious Activity
- Individuals and organisations should actively watch for attacks.
- Check logs: Look for a lot of failed logins, unexpected login locations, or unknown IP addresses.
- Security tools like SIEM systems can automatically identify suspicious behaviour for admins.
Keep Security Clean
- A few simple practices can avoid attacks.
- Update software: To patch vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit, update your OS, browsers, and apps regularly.
- Antivirus/anti-malware: Use trusted security software to identify and remove keyloggers and other password-stealing malware.
- Public Wi-Fi: Avoid logging into sensitive accounts onunsecured networks. If necessary, encrypt your traffic with a VPN.
Lock accounts
- Businesses and organisations need this administrative oversight.
- Set systems to temporarily freeze accounts after 3-5 failed login attempts. This greatly delays brute-force attacks.
- While effective, attackers can use it to lock out valid users and cause a denial-of-service. Balance matters.
Advantages
Password attacks provide a threat actor with a number of benefits:
- Direct Access and Privilege Escalation: If a password is correctly guessed or cracked, sensitive data, accounts, and systems can be accessed without authorisation. A hacked administrative password gives the attacker strong privileges that let them take over the network or open backdoors.
- Information Gathering: Techniques such as Trojan horses can track login attempts and obtain login information. Cleartext passwords can be obtained by packet sniffers, which are useful for reconnaissance in MitM attacks.
- Abusing Human Nature: People frequently use passwords that are easy to remember (such as dictionary words, pet names, or family names), which makes them easy to figure out.
- Getting Around Weak Protections: Even if encryption is used (such as service password encryption), it may be simple to decrypt using online tools, making it possible for a skilled attacker to go around it.
- Leveraging Existing Vulnerabilities: The assault is made easier by utilizing malware or protocols that transmit credentials in cleartext, such as Telnet.
Disadvantages of Password attacks
Successfully exploiting password vulnerabilities has serious consequences for network defenders:
- System and Data Compromise: Passwords that are simple to figure out can result in instant access to the system, data theft, and a loss of confidentiality and integrity.
- Network Control and Persistent Threats: When an attacker gains administrator access, they can install backdoors, take over the network, and inflict extensive harm.
- Difficulty in Detection: Although certain attacks are detectable, harmful activity may go undetected if attackers employ credentials that have been stolen or techniques that appear authentic.
- Human Element as Weak Link: When it comes to network security, users are frequently regarded as the weakest link. Users may use weak passwords or write them down in spite of policies, which would defeat technical restrictions.
- Cleartext Exposure: Passwords that are transmitted unencrypted (like Telnet) or kept in cleartext (like older IOS commands) are extremely susceptible to MitM and eavesdropping attacks.
- Resource Consumption: While mostly an issue for attackers, online dictionary or brute-force attacks can degrade performance on the target by using up a lot of system and network resources if they are not prevented.
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Applications
A strong security strategy uses a range of tools and methods to lessen password attacks:
Password Policies
- Complexity: Passwords have to be lengthy and comprise a mix of special characters, numbers, and capital and lowercase letters. Shorter, more complicated passwords may not be as secure as longer, simpler ones, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
- Length: Longer passwords (up to 15 characters for easier recall) are ideal, although a minimum of 8 characters is advised. The amount of time and processing power needed to crack a password increases exponentially with its length.
- Expiration and Management: Systems should prohibit users from using the same passwords, and passwords should be changed on a regular basis (e.g., every 30 to 90 days).
- Steer Clear of Weak Passwords: Users need to be taught to steer clear of passwords that are easy to figure out, including “password,” proper names, pet names, dictionary words, birthdates, usernames, or any labels that are readily visible.
- Workstations ought to be set up to automatically launch a password-protected screensaver following a brief period of inactivity.
- Required Passwords: Make certain that all accounts, including the system’s default accounts, have passwords and that these are updated right after.
Password Storage and Encryption
- Cisco IOS global configuration command for service password-encryption: This command encrypts type 0 passwords and displays them as type 7 encrypted values in the running configuration. However, this encryption provides little defence against skilled attackers because it is weak and readily deciphered using web tools.
- Strong Hashing: Cisco IOS employs strong hashing methods (e.g., MD5, SHA-256, scrypt) for important passwords such as the username secret and enable secret. These make it computationally challenging to decipher the cleartext password by storing a computed hash of it. Newer algorithms like SHA-256 and scrypt provide better security, even though MD5 has gotten easier to crack over time.
Advanced Authentication Methods
- Authentication, Authorisation, and Accounting (AAA) Services: To centralise and secure user credentials, utilise AAA, frequently with external servers (such RADIUS or TACACS+). These protocols improve security by encrypting passwords while they are being transmitted over a network.
- Multifactor Authentication (MFA): This system asks users to supply many “factors” from various sources, like “something you have” (a token or time-limited code) and “something you know” (a password). Numerical passwords generated by hardware or software tokens have a set expiration date.
- Digital Certificates: As a robust substitute for plain password strings for authentication, use digital certificates, which are frequently found within a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
- Biometrics: This type of authentication uses distinct biological traits, such as fingerprints, that are classified as “something you are”.
- OTPs: Extremely secure passwords created for a single login session that are meaningless if they are intercepted.
- WPA3-Personal: This most recent wireless security standard offers Individualized Data Protection (IDP) and considerably reduces dictionary attacks against pre-shared keys by fortifying key transfers through Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE).
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Controlling Login Attempts
- Automatic Account Lockouts: To stop automated brute-force attacks, network operating systems can be set up to momentarily lock user accounts following a predetermined number of failed login attempts.
- ACLs on VTY Lines: To filter source IP addresses permitted to connect to a router or switch, Access Control Lists (ACLs) can be applied to Virtual Terminal (VTY) lines (used for Telnet/SSH access). By doing this, attackers may not even notice a password prompt.
- Authentication Failure Rate Limits: Dictionary attacks can be effectively prevented by imposing limits on authentication failures (e.g., restricting access for 15 seconds after three unsuccessful attempts).
Secure Remote Access
Secure Shell (SSH): Whenever possible, utilize SSH rather than Telnet to get remote access to network devices. Passwords are protected from Man-in-the-Middle attacks and eavesdropping by being encrypted using SSH.
Physical Security
Physical Access Control: It is essential to keep network devices in locked spaces with limited access, such as data centres or network closets. This stops direct access to device configurations that might contain unencrypted passwords, physical theft, and illegal manipulation. Additionally, this stops methods of recovering passwords that need direct console access to a device (such as launching ROMMON to disregard startup-config).
User Education and Audits
User Awareness and Training: It is crucial to inform users about the dangers of social engineering (phishing, pharming, shoulder surfing, identity theft, and skip diving), the significance of following security guidelines, and the need of maintaining good password hygiene. Training can lessen this risk because the “human element” is frequently the weakest link.
Security Audits: Frequent security audits, which include physical workplace tours, can reveal infractions such as employees writing passwords on sticky notes next to their workstations. The strength of implemented passwords can be tested using auditing tools, such as password cracking software.
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