A brute force attack is simple. It is just trial and error. Instead of looking for software bugs or sending phishing emails, attackers just guess your password. They try every possible combination of letters, numbers, and symbols until they get in.
It sounds old-school, but it works. Today, hackers don’t do this manually. They use automated bots. These tools can test millions of passwords every single second. If your password is short or weak, they will crack it in no time.
In this guide, we will break down how these attacks work and how you can stop them.
Why are brute force attacks so dangerous?
These attacks might seem basic, but they are highly effective. Here is why they pose such a massive threat:
- They never sleep. Attackers use automated software that runs 24/7. These bots guess passwords at blistering speeds without ever getting tired.
- They count on our bad habits. Most people use weak passwords because they are easy to remember. Hackers know this. Their tools use dictionaries of common words and leaked data to instantly guess your login.
- The domino effect. Do you reuse passwords? If a hacker cracks one account, they will try those same details everywhere else. Suddenly, a single weak password can compromise your entire digital life.
- The damage is massive. For businesses, a successful attack is a nightmare. Hackers can steal customer data, deploy ransomware, or lock you out of your own network. And it all starts with just one lucky guess.
How do brute force attacks work?
To understand how this works, you have to look at what happens when you log in to a website. Normally, you type your password, and the site checks it against its database. A brute-force attack simply automates this exact process, but at a massive scale.
Online vs. offline attacks
The environment of the attack changes how dangerous it is because it dictates how fast the software can guess.
- Online Attacks: The hacker’s tool tries to log in directly through a live webpage. These are much easier to stop. Because the traffic travels over the internet, a basic security tool can notice the spam and block the hacker’s IP address after a few wrong guesses.
- Offline Attacks: These are far more dangerous. In this scenario, the hacker has already stolen a database of encrypted passwords from a past data breach. They download this file to their own computer and run cracking software locally. Because they do not need to talk to a live website, nobody can block them. They can guess billions of times a second without anyone ever knowing
Why Two-Factor Authentication is Essential for E-commerce Security
Types of brute force attacks
Depending on what information the hacker already has, they will choose one of four main strategies to break into an account:
- Simple Brute Force: This is pure, systematic guesswork. The program starts at the letter “A” and runs through every single combination of characters until it hits the right one. It takes a long time, but it easily breaks short, simple passwords.
- Dictionary Attacks: Nobody guesses random letters if they can guess real words. This method tests a list of common words, names, and phrases. It also tries obvious tweaks that humans make, like changing the letter “S” to a dollar sign.
- Credential Stuffing: This tactic relies entirely on the fact that people reuse passwords. If a hacker steals a login from a gaming forum, they will automatically feed that same email and password into banking or shopping sites to see if they get a match.
- Reverse Brute Force: Instead of guessing a million passwords for one username, the software does the exact opposite. It takes one incredibly common password (like “Password123”) and tries it against millions of different usernames across a platform until it finds someone who used it.
Motives behind a brute force attack
Hackers love this method because it requires very little technical skill. They do not need to write complex code or find hidden flaws in a system. They just buy a cheap software tool and let it run. Once the tool gets them inside an account, they usually focus on a few specific goals:
- Selling Personal Data: They look for credit card numbers, home addresses, or social security numbers that they can quickly sell on the dark web.
- Deploying Ransomware: If a hacker breaks into a corporate account, they can plant malware to lock down the company’s entire network and demand a payout.
- Stealing Computing Power: Sometimes, hackers just want to use a company’s servers to secretly mine cryptocurrency or launch attacks on other targets.
How to prevent brute force attacks?
Preventing these attacks is actually straightforward. You either need to make the math impossible for the hacker’s computer or stop their software from guessing in the first place.
Here are the most effective ways to do that, whether you are protecting your personal data or securing a company network.
1. Prioritise length over complexity
People used to think that replacing the letter “E” with a “3” made a password safe. It doesn’t. Automated tools can solve those patterns easily. What truly breaks a brute force tool is length.
Instead of a short password with random symbols, use a long passphrase made of four or five random words (like CorrectHorseBatteryStaple). A computer can guess a complex 8-character password in minutes, but guessing a 16-character passphrase made of common words would take the same machine centuries.
2. Turn on Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
This is your best line of defence. Even if a bot manages to guess your password perfectly, it still cannot access your account without a secondary verification code. This code is usually sent to your phone or generated by an authenticator app. MFA completely resets the clock and renders a successful guess useless.
3. Limit login attempts
If you manage a website or network, you must set up an account lockout policy. This means that if someone types the wrong password five times, the system locks them out for 15 minutes. Brute force attacks rely entirely on speed. If a bot is forced to wait 15 minutes after every few guesses, the attack becomes completely impractical.
4. Use CAPTCHAs on login pages
Because brute force attacks require automated software to work, you can stop them by forcing the visitor to prove they are human. Adding a CAPTCHA test to your login form prevents bots from submitting automated requests, effectively cutting the attack off before it even begins.
5. Switch to a password manager
You cannot humanly remember a unique, 16-character passphrase for every single website you use. A password manager solves this by creating, storing, and typing strong passwords for you. This removes the temptation to reuse old passwords, which protects you from credential stuffing attacks.
6. Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) through your host
Good hosting providers offer built-in firewalls that act like a security guard for your site. A WAF inspects all incoming traffic and spots malicious behaviour automatically. If a single IP address tries to access your login page hundreds of times a minute, the firewall blocks it at the server level before it can even touch your website.
7. Invest in secure, isolated hosting
Cheap shared hosting puts your website on a server with hundreds of others. If a hacker successfully breaches a neighbour’s site via a brute force attack, they can often jump across the server to access your files, too. Quality hosts isolate your account completely, meaning a security flaw next door won’t put your own data at risk.
Brute Force Attacks FAQs
1. What is a brute force attack?
It is a trial-and-error method where hackers use automated software to guess a password. Instead of looking for flaws in a system, the software just types millions of different character combinations until it finds the one that unlocks the account.
2. Is a brute force attack illegal?
Yes. Trying to access an account, server, or network without explicit permission is a cybercrime. Even if the hacker fails to guess the password or doesn’t steal any data, the actual act of unauthorised guessing is illegal under global cybersecurity laws.
3. How common are brute force attacks?
They are incredibly common. Because these attacks are automated, malicious bots scan the internet 24/7 looking for any exposed login page. They require very little effort from the hacker, making them a default choice for a massive percentage of daily cyberattacks.
4. How long would it take to crack an eight-character password?
It depends on the complexity, but it happens shockingly fast. According to recent cybersecurity data, an eight-character password using only lowercase letters can be cracked in less than a month. If it only uses numbers, a hacker’s machine can crack it instantly. This is why modern security standards now recommend using a minimum of 15 characters.
5. Can a brute force attack bypass Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)?
No. A brute force tool is only designed to guess text passwords. Even if a bot guesses your password perfectly, it will still get stuck on the secondary verification screen. Unless the hacker also has physical access to your phone or authentication app, the attack fails.
6. How do I know if my website is currently under attack?
The most obvious sign is a sudden, massive spike in failed login attempts in your website or server logs. You might also notice your website suddenly running incredibly slow. This happens because the automated bots are eating up your server’s memory by submitting thousands of requests at once.
Hi! My name is Dion, Account Manager at Hypernode
Want to know more about Hypernode's Managed E-commerce Hosting? Schedule your online meeting.
schedule one-on-one meeting +31 (0) 648362102
