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dictionary attack

noun
/ˌdɪkʃənəɹi əˈtæk/UK/ˌdɪkʃəˌnɛɹi əˈtæk/US

Etymology

From dictionary + attack.

  1. derived from *stakkijan✻ — “to stick, stick to, attach”
  2. derived from attaccare — “to join, attach”
  3. borrowed from attaque
  4. compounded as dictionary attack — “dictionary + attack”

Definitions

  1. An attempt to illegally access a computer network, website, etc., that uses a list of…

    An attempt to illegally access a computer network, website, etc., that uses a list of words (from a dictionary) to try to guess decryption keys or passwords.

    • Experts warn against using ordinary words as passwords as they are vulnerable to dictionary attacks.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for dictionary attack. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA