SY0-501 · Question #342
Which of the following differentiates a collision attack from a rainbow table attack?
The correct answer is A. A rainbow table attack performs a hash lookup. A rainbow table attack involves performing a lookup against a pre-computed table of hashes, while a collision attack focuses on finding two different inputs that produce the same hash output.
Question
Which of the following differentiates a collision attack from a rainbow table attack?
Options
- AA rainbow table attack performs a hash lookup
- BA rainbow table attack uses the hash as a password
- CIn a collision attack, the hash and the input data are equivalent
- DIn a collision attack, the same input results in different hashes
How the community answered
(39 responses)- A85% (33)
- B5% (2)
- C3% (1)
- D8% (3)
Why each option
A rainbow table attack involves performing a lookup against a pre-computed table of hashes, while a collision attack focuses on finding two different inputs that produce the same hash output.
A rainbow table attack works by pre-computing a massive database of hash-to-password mappings, and then when given a target hash, an attacker performs a lookup in this table to quickly find the corresponding plaintext password. This process bypasses the need for real-time brute-forcing by relying on pre-calculated data.
A rainbow table attack's primary goal is to retrieve the original plaintext password from a given hash, not to use the hash itself as a password.
In a collision attack, the hash is a fixed-size, one-way transformation of the input data, not equivalent to the input data itself.
A fundamental property of a cryptographic hash function is that the same input will always produce the same hash; a collision attack seeks two *different* inputs that yield an identical hash.
Concept tested: Distinguishing hash-based attack types (Rainbow Table vs. Collision)
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