Security
Beginner
What is Brute Force Attack?
An attack method that systematically tries all possible combinations of passwords or keys until the correct one is found.
Brute force attacks try every possible password combination. Simple brute force tries all character combinations. Dictionary attacks use common passwords. Hybrid attacks combine dictionary words with modifications (numbers, symbols).
Protection includes strong passwords (length over complexity), account lockout policies, progressive delays, CAPTCHAs, two-factor authentication, and rate limiting. Password hashing with bcrypt/Argon2 makes each attempt computationally expensive.
