ElcomSoft adds dictionary attacks to Distributed Password Recovery

ElcomSoft updates Distributed Password Recovery, a scalable password recovery solution with multi-CPU and multi-GPU support, with dictionary attacks and a password cache, making recovery of strong encryption keys possible.

The newly added dictionary attack enables the users of Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery to unlock encrypted documents and information protected with strong passwords. Dictionary attack can quickly recover the majority of passwords used by general computer users, and up to 40 per cent of passwords employed in corporate environments.

By adding the dictionary attack, ElcomSoft reduces time required to unlock information protected with strong encryption algorithms and long, complex passwords.

A brute-force attack on encryption keys can take significant time even with Elcomsoft’s patent-pending GPU acceleration; sometimes in the range of weeks or months even on the most powerful workstations.

Despite many corporate security policies strongly advised otherwise, protecting multiple documents and the different types of information with a shared password is common. Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery is now able to store all passwords it discovers, forming a separate dictionary that is tried first when recovering the next document. The dictionary of discovered passwords is being used in order to recover other documents and information protected with the same password.