Mastering Linux Security and Hardening - Second Edition

Detecting compromised passwords

Yes, dear hearts, the bad guys do have extensive dictionaries of passwords that either are commonly used or have been compromised. One of the most effective ways of brute-forcing passwords is to use these dictionaries to perform a dictionary attack. This is when the password-cracking tool reads in passwords from a specified dictionary and tries each one until either the list has been exhausted, or until the attack is successful. So, how do you know if your password is on one of those lists? Easy. Just use one of the online services that will check your password for you. One popular site is Have I Been Pwned?, which you can see here:

You can get to Have I Been Pwned? here: https://haveibeenpwned.com

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