Password Spray Attack Definition
Password Spray Attack is quite the opposite of Brute Force Attack. In Brute Force attacks, hackers choose a vulnerable ID and enter passwords one after another hoping some password might let them in. Basically, Brute Force is many passwords applied to just one ID.
Coming to Password Spray attacks, there is one password applied to multiple user IDs so that at least one of the user ID is compromised. For Password Spray attacks, hackers collect multiple user IDs using social engineering or other phishing methods. It often happens that at least one of those users is using a simple password like 12345678 or even [email protected]. This vulnerability (or lack of info on how to create strong passwords) is exploited in Password Spray Attacks. In a Password Spray Attack, the hacker would apply a carefully constructed password for all the user IDs he or she has collected. If lucky, the hacker might gain access to one account from where s/he can further penetrate into the computer network. Password Spray Attack can thus be defined as applying the same password to multiple user accounts in an organization to secure unauthorized access to one of those accounts.
Brute Force Attack vs Password Spray Attack
The problem with Brute Force Attacks is that systems can be locked down after a certain number of attempts with different passwords. For example, if you set up the server to accept only three attempts otherwise lock down the system where login is taking place, the system will lock down for just three invalid password entries. Some organizations allow three while others allow up to ten invalid attempts. Many websites use this locking method these days. This precaution is a problem with Brute Force Attacks as the system lockdown will alert the administrators about the attack. To circumvent that, the idea of collecting user IDs and applying probable passwords to them was created. With Password Spray Attack too, certain precautions are practiced by the hackers. For example, if they tried to apply password1 to all the user accounts, they will not start applying password2 to those accounts soon after finishing the first round. They’ll leave a period of at least 30 minutes among hacking attempts.
Protecting against Password Spray Attacks
Both Brute Force Attack and Password Spray attacks can be stopped midway provided that there are related security policies in place. The 30 min gap if left out, the system will again lock down if a provision is made for that. Certain other things also can be applied, like adding time difference between logins on two user accounts. If it is a fraction of a second, increase timing for two user accounts to log in. Such policies help in alerting the administers who can then shut down the servers or lock them down so that no read-write operation happens on databases. The first thing to protect your organization from Password Spray Attacks is to educate your employees about the types of social engineering attacks, phishing attacks, and the importance of passwords. That way employees won’t use any predictable passwords for their accounts. Another method is admins providing the users with strong passwords, explaining the need to be cautious so that they don’t note down the passwords and stick it to their computers. There are some methods that help in identifying the vulnerabilities in your organizational systems. For example, if you are using Office 365 Enterprise, you can run Attack Simulator to know if any of your employees are using a weak password. Read next: What is Domain Fronting?
