What is a brute force attack?

A brute force attack is a cyberattack where a hacker uses software to systematically test different password combinations to gain access to an account without authorization..

It's called "brute force" because attackers rely on computing power to repeatedly guess passwords, rather than using advanced techniques or skills. 

What are brute force attacks used for?

Brute force attacks are aimed at exploiting systemic vulnerabilities for financial, informational, and strategic gains. According to Google, this approach remains the most commonly used method for targeting cloud platforms. For example, an AhnLab Security Emergency Response Center (ASEC) study shows that brute-force attacks target servers, using botnets and malware like Mirai and P2Pinfect to breach systems. 

Here’s a breakdown of the most common reasons attackers employ brute-force method:

• Financial exploitation: After gaining access, attackers often seek financial data, banking credentials, or customer credit cards to steal funds. Research indicates that 89% of breaches are financially motivated. 

• Intellectual property acquisition: Technology, pharmaceutical, and research organizations are frequent targets due to their trade secrets. Attackers attempt to steal valuable proprietary assets, such as source code, chemical formulas, or blueprints, and sell them on illegal markets.

• Competitive intelligence: Companies also use hacking to spy on business rivals, aiming to steal any confidential information that provides a competitive edge. For example, harvesting plans for new products and upcoming strategies may enable replica items to reach the market before the originals.

• Political manipulation: Breaking into party databases during elections can reveal voter information, which may be used to influence public opinion through leaks or false information.

• Cybercrime ecosystem development: Criminal groups steal personal data to sell online, supporting identity theft and offering access to hacked systems for illegal activities.

• Hacktivism: Activist hackers target organizations they find ethically or politically objectionable, stealing sensitive documents and threatening to leak damaging information.

Types of brute force attacks

Brute force attacks take many forms, and the forms these automated attacks take continues to evolve. In general, these methods rely on high volumes and probability. Awareness of the different types of brute force attacks is fundamental to implementing effective defensive strategies.

Below are some common types to watch out for:

• Credential stuffing: Hackers exploit large lists of stolen usernames, emails, and passwords obtained from past data breaches—a common tactic known as credential stuffing. Seventy-eight percent of people rely on the same password to secure multiple accounts, so bad actors use automated programs to rapidly test if these details will allow them to log into accounts on other platforms that use the same credentials.

• Dictionary attacks: Cybercriminals often use software that can try endless combinations of common dictionary words in multiple languages to crack passwords.

• Hybrid attacks: These are sophisticated methods that combine different types. For instance, hackers can combine a dictionary attack blueprint with with numerical and special character permutations along with real leaked passwords for higher accuracy.

• Rainbow table attacks: Here, attackers use pre-computed password hashes to accelerate password discovery processes. They check breached database copies against your system for matches to unlock access, making attacks faster and more challenging to trace.

• Mask attacks: These types of attack focus on exploiting known password structure patterns and complexity requirements alongside partial information. For instance, if the first few strings of a password are known, hackers use algorithms to predict the remaining characters.

• Distributed attacks: Large computational nodes coordinate across thousands of devices to boost brute force capacity and speed.

Brute force vs. credential stuffing vs. botnet vs. DDoS

Cybersecurity involves a great deal of jargon and cryptic terminology, but gaining a nuanced understanding of the differences between cyberattack methods is vital for successfully defending your systems. Where brute force attacks involve guessing passwords, other cyber threats like credential stuffing, botnets, and DDoS have their distinct characteristics. Let's take a closer look at these common threats:

Credential Stuffing

Credential Stuffing uses leaked username and password combinations to automate login attempts on multiple sites, relying on the common practice of account holders reusing credentials across platforms. With billions of stolen credentials available from past breaches, it's a highly effective tactic for account takeover and, unlike brute-force guessing, it requires minimal computing power.

Botnets

These use networks of infected devices, such as computers or smartphones, covertly controlled by hackers through malware. Botnets carry out wide-scale automated exploits and attacks using the combined computing power and bandwidth of the compromised devices. For hackers, they are a cost-effective alternative to renting expensive equipment.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

DDoS attacks overwhelm systems by flooding them with junk traffic, slowing or halting their operations. They use an army of co-opted devices to choke bandwidth, freeze resources, and disrupt service availability.

In short, while brute-forcing focuses specifically on password guessing, credential stuffing exploits past data leaks, botnets create armies of compromised devices, and DDoS attacks disable systems by overloading them.

How to prevent brute force attacks in your business

Cybersecurity requires a proactive defense strategy centered on technological vigilance and resilience. Effectively preventing brute force attacks requires establishing multilayered defensive systems to detect and stop unauthorized access attempts.

Let's explore some key methods on how to prevent a brute force attack:

1. Implement advanced authentication protocols

Upgrade from basic passwords to multifactor authentication with adaptive risk assessment capabilities. This approach requires your customers and employees to validate by completing additional steps like entering one-time codes sent to phones or biometric authentication. Extra measures like these significantly raise the difficulty of brute-forcing into accounts.

2. Develop intelligent password policies

Enforce strong password protocols that combine greater complexity requirements with password expiration and rotation policies. Use centralized identity management platforms to blacklist commonly attacked passwords and set minimum standards for length and character types. Apply AI-driven tools to identify and address weak or reused passwords.

3. Design sophisticated rate-limiting mechanisms

Create access controls to block repeated failed login attempts from the same IP address or range. This protects against sustained attempts to guess passwords while maintaining accessibility for legitimate users. Ensure proper configuration to avoid unintentionally locking out valid accounts.

4. Integrate real-time threat intelligence

Connect security infrastructure with global threat monitoring platforms to stay up to date on malicious IP addresses, compromised credentials, and attack techniques. Also, automate analytics systems to monitor networks and accounts for early brute force indicators.

5. Optimize network segmentation

Strategically compartmentalize systems and data access to limit damage if credentials are compromised. Restrict VPN and external entry points while granting employees minimal access levels. 

If you serve customers in a specific location, you can use geo-blocking to prevent attackers from other countries accessing your sites or apps.

6. Conduct regular penetration testing

Provide ethical hackers with authorization to attempt to breach your defenses using simulations of brute force attacks and other cyber threats. Pentesting like this uncovers vulnerabilities and allows you to continuously strengthen your cybersecurity.

7. Invest in behavioral analytics

Profile typical user patterns around data access, applications, and geographic movements. Machine learning algorithms can automatically detect anomalous behaviors indicative of credential misuse and preemptively terminate suspicious sessions.

Fastly's comprehensive security measures against brute force attacks

Brute-force cyberattacks involve persistently attempting to crack passwords or access systems leveraging sheer computing power, and the scale and complexity of these threats continue to grow. 

Fastly Security delivers strong protection against brute force attacks with an integrated security tool suite designed to rapidly deploy layered defenses across your website and apps. Here’s a breakdown of Fastly’s top security benefits:

• Next-Gen Web Application Firewall (WAF): Fastly's Next-Gen WAF monitors and filters incoming web traffic, automatically blocking suspicious activity associated with brute force attempts. It provides instantaneous visibility into emerging threats.

• DDoS protection: The solution shields against distributed brute force attempts by absorbing and filtering malicious traffic before it reaches your servers.

• Rate limiting: This feature rapidly restricts the requests a single customer or IP address can send within a set timeframe, helping prevent automated brute-force attempts.

• Edge security: The platform deploys defenses closer to the source of the attack, minimizing latency while effectively blocking threats.

• TLS/HTTPS enforcement: Fastly ensures encrypted communication channels, protecting against interception and credential sniffing during brute force attempts.

Request a free demo of Fastly's security tools suite to see them in action and stop brute-force attacks before they start.