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NVidia Chip Helps Vista Password Cracking
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-10-26
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Elcomsoft didn't need Blue Gene or a similar supercomputer to speed up their password cracking 25 times faster. They needed a GeForce 8800 Ultra off the shelf.
 | | NVidia Chip Helps Vista Password Cracking |  |
Microsoft's Vista operating system and a strong password should be a secure combination. A patent filing by Elcomsoft suggested otherwise.
The company touted its Distributed Password Recovery product as being able to recover those logon passwords. Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word/Excel files pose no problem for it either.
Fans of PGP may be surprised to find out Elcomsoft's product can rip into their secret key rings and whole disk encryption as well.
New Scientist said the technology of graphics processing units (GPU) makes it possible to whisk through a tough password in three to five days, using a cheaper GPU than the 8800.
It's all about massively parallel processing. The money quote from an nVidia spokesperson likened this to searching for words in a book:
"A [normal computer processor] would read the book, starting at page 1 and finishing at page 500," he says. "A GPU would take the book, tear it into a 100,000 pieces, and read all of those pieces at the same time."
The threat to online applications like banking should be lessened due to common practices like locking out accounts after multiple failed logins. But a computer falling into the hands of someone using Elcomsoft's program would be at a high risk.
It's something to keep in mind the next time a story about laptop theft happens. Even a protected machine could give up its secrets in short order.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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