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Think passwords, people. Think long, complex passwords. Not because a breach dump's landed, but because the security-probing-oriented Kali Linux just got better at cracking passwords.
Kali is a Debian-based Linux that packs in numerous hacking and forensics tools. It's well-regarded among white hat hackers and investigators, who appreciate its inclusion of the tools of their trades.
The developers behind the distro this week gave it a polish, adding new images optimised for GPU-using instances in Azure and Amazon Web Services. The extra grunt the GPUs afford, Kali's backers say, will enhance the distribution's password-probing powers. There's also better supoprt for GPU cracking, hence our warning at the top of this story: anyone can use Kali and there's no way to guarantee black hats won't press it into service. And they can now do so on as many GPU-boosted cloud instances as they fancy paying for.
Could some users of Kali Linux technically be called "thugs?"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 30 2017, @09:31PM (2 children)
So - I can use the cloud to crack a password. Sounds great. A password that might take days to crack on my own hardware, might be revealed in minutes, or hours, with the help of the cloud. Cool. It all depends on how many CPU's I can bring to bear.
But, what trail does it leave? Who is going to know that I used fifty (or 500) powerful CPU's to crack a complicated password? Is Amazon going to know what I've been doing? Might Amazon (or whoever) decide that this data should be handed to the NSA? I am still suspicious of the cloud. I'd rather spend the extra hours or days, doing my work on my own hardware. I've never spent more than two weeks revealing a password yet. I guess that makes it obvious that none of my targets have used truly secure passwords. (That was on an early dual core Sledgehammer - the machine I have today would probably do the same job in three or four days.)
"Could some users of Kali Linux technically be called "thugs?""
But, of course. The tools found in Kali are just that - tools. Some owners of guns are thugs, other people who have guns are called "peace officer". It all depends on how you use your tools.
Oh - for those who don't know about them - rainbows. Gays don't get all the rainbows, LOL! There really isn't much need to brute force passwords anymore.
https://www.lifewire.com/rainbow-tables-your-passwords-worst-nightmare-2487288 [lifewire.com]
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday May 01 2017, @01:45AM (1 child)
I know what rainbow tables are. What I don't know is why they are called rainbow tables.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 01 2017, @02:24AM
Guess:
Because there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (access to the account)?