dictionary attack

American  

noun

Computers.

1. an attempt to break into a password-protected computer or computer system with a software program that successively tries all the words in a large dictionary or other word list.

2. an attempt by a spammer to obtain a list of valid email addresses by testing possible usernames in combination with a domain name.

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dictionary attack British  

noun

1. an attempt to hack into a computer or network by submitting every word in a dictionary as a possible password

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Etymology

Origin of dictionary attack

First recorded in 1985–90

Example Sentences

They compare the method to a “dictionary attack” against passwords, where a hacker runs a pre-generated list of common passwords against a security system.

From The Guardian

"The algorithm MD5 is considered to be weak, and for the vast majority of passwords it is easy to reverse what it was using what we call a dictionary attack," said Prof Alan Woodward, a security expert from Surrey University.

From BBC

“We basically tried a dictionary attack,” Ben Winiger, 16, of Johnson City, Tenn., said as he typed a new command into John The Ripper, a software tool that helps test and break passwords.

From New York Times

But because they use cryptographic hashes to obscure those words, the computing power to run a dictionary attack has long been unavailable to most users.

From Forbes

Pretty easy to remember, but tough for a dictionary attack to guess.

From Scientific American