Password cracking programs reverse the hashing process to recover passwords.(True/False.)

The correct answer is B. False. Password cracking programs do NOT reverse the hashing process because cryptographic hash functions are one-way and mathematically irreversible. Instead, crackers generate candidate passwords, hash them, and compare the output to the target hash.

Cryptography

Question

Options

ATrue
BFalse

How the community answered

(35 responses)

A
14% (5)
B
86% (30)

Why each option

Password cracking programs do NOT reverse the hashing process because cryptographic hash functions are one-way and mathematically irreversible. Instead, crackers generate candidate passwords, hash them, and compare the output to the target hash.

ATrue

Hashing is a one-way function by design, so stating that crackers reverse the process is technically incorrect - they use forward computation and comparison instead.

BFalseCorrect

Cryptographic hash functions are designed to be one-way - there is no algorithm that can take a hash digest and recover the original input. Password crackers operate by generating guesses (via brute force, dictionary, or rainbow tables), applying the same hash function to each guess, and checking whether the resulting hash matches the stored hash. This is comparison-based, not reversal.

Concept tested: One-way nature of cryptographic hash functions

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/security/ensuring-data-integrity-with-hash-codes

Topics

#password hashing#hash reversal#cryptographic one-way functions#password cracking

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