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SY0-301 · Question #573

Several employee accounts appear to have been cracked by an attacker. Which of the following should the security administrator implement to mitigate password cracking attacks? (Select TWO).

The correct answer is A. Increase password complexity F. Increase password length. Increasing password complexity and length directly reduces the effectiveness of brute-force and dictionary-based cracking attacks by expanding the search space exponentially.

General security concepts

Question

Several employee accounts appear to have been cracked by an attacker. Which of the following should the security administrator implement to mitigate password cracking attacks? (Select TWO).

Options

  • AIncrease password complexity
  • BDeploy an IDS to capture suspicious logins
  • CImplement password history
  • DImplement monitoring of logins
  • EImplement password expiration
  • FIncrease password length

How the community answered

(34 responses)
  • A
    91% (31)
  • B
    6% (2)
  • C
    3% (1)

Why each option

Increasing password complexity and length directly reduces the effectiveness of brute-force and dictionary-based cracking attacks by expanding the search space exponentially.

AIncrease password complexityCorrect

Password complexity requirements (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, symbols) dramatically increase the number of possible combinations an attacker must try, making brute-force and dictionary attacks computationally impractical.

BDeploy an IDS to capture suspicious logins

An IDS can detect suspicious login attempts but does not prevent the cracking of passwords that have already been captured or hashed.

CImplement password history

Password history prevents reuse of old passwords but does not make current passwords harder to crack.

DImplement monitoring of logins

Monitoring logins can detect attacks after the fact but does not mitigate the underlying vulnerability of weak passwords.

EImplement password expiration

Password expiration limits the window of exploitation of a cracked password but does not make the password itself harder to crack.

FIncrease password lengthCorrect

Increasing password length has an exponential effect on the total keyspace - each additional character multiplies the number of possible passwords, making cracking attacks far more time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Concept tested: Password strength controls against cracking attacks

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/security-policy-settings/password-must-meet-complexity-requirements

Topics

#password complexity#password length#password cracking#account security

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