Password Security Interview Questions — Flashcards | inGrade

Question 1

Why is password complexity important in cybersecurity?

Accepted Answer

Password complexity prevents unauthorized access by making it harder for attackers to guess passwords through brute-force or dictionary attacks. Complex passwords use a mix of characters, numbers, and symbols.

Question 2

What is a brute-force password cracking attack?

Accepted Answer

Brute-force attacks involve trying every possible combination of characters until the correct one is found. This method is time-consuming but guaranteed to succeed with enough time and resources.

Question 3

What is a dictionary attack?

Accepted Answer

A dictionary attack uses a list of common words and phrases to guess passwords. It is faster than brute force but less exhaustive, relying on commonly used passwords.

Question 4

What are rainbow tables and how do they work?

Accepted Answer

Rainbow tables are precomputed tables that map hashes to their plaintext counterparts, enabling attackers to quickly look up a hash and find the corresponding password. Salting defeats this technique.

Question 5

How does salting enhance password security?

Accepted Answer

Salting adds a random string to the password before hashing it, ensuring that even identical passwords have different hashes, making rainbow table attacks ineffective.

Question 6

What is Microsoft Active Directory and how does Kerberos work?

Accepted Answer

Active Directory manages users and resources in a networked environment. Kerberos uses tickets for secure authentication — users request a ticket from the Key Distribution Center (KDC) to authenticate without sending passwords over the network.

Question 7

What is the difference between Kerberos and NTLM authentication?

Accepted Answer

Kerberos is a more secure, modern authentication method based on ticketing. NTLM relies on challenge-response authentication and is less secure, used mainly for legacy systems.

Question 8

What is a password spraying attack?

Accepted Answer

Password spraying involves attempting a few common passwords across many accounts, avoiding lockout mechanisms that are triggered in traditional brute-force attacks.

Question 9

What tools are commonly used for password cracking?

Accepted Answer

Tools like Hashcat and John the Ripper use specialized algorithms and powerful hardware (GPUs) to try large numbers of combinations. Ophcrack uses rainbow tables. Cain & Abel supports multiple cracking methods.

Question 10

What is a passphrase and how does it improve security?

Accepted Answer

A passphrase is a string of random words or a sentence. It is easy to remember and can be much more secure than a single complex password due to its length and entropy.

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