The application of computing and network resources to try every possible combination of characters to crack a password is known as a ____ attack.
A) man-in-the-middle attack
B) denial-of-service (DoS)
C) dictionary attack
D) brute force

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A brute force attack is a trial-and-error method in which automated software is used to generate a large sequence of consecutive guesses as to the value of a particular data field, like a password. It tries every possible combination of characters until the correct password is found or until all possible combinations have been tried. This method is often used when other methods, such as dictionary or social engineering attacks, have failed.

The Application of Computing and Network Resources to Try Every