nVidia 8800 card is used to crack passwords

http://www.activehome.co.uk/vnunet/n...harge-password

Hackers turbocharge password cracks with nVidia card
GeForce 8800 can speed up brute force attacks by a factor of 25

Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 29 Oct 2007

NVidia's GeForce 8800 graphics card could be utilised to
"dramatically" reduce the time needed by hackers to perform brute-
force password cracks, security experts have warned.

Moscow-based IT security software vendor Elcomsoft claimed that the
GeForce 8000 could be used to increase the speed of password cracking
by a factor of 25.

This means that Windows Vista's password system, which would normally
take months to crack using a brute force technique, could be broken in
a matter of days.

Calum Macleod, European director at data encryption firm Cyber-Ark,
explained that this reduction is down to the parallel processing
capabilities of the nVidia graphics processor.

"Elcomsoft's revelations are likely to send shock waves through the IT
security world, as it shows that powerful off-the-shelf kit can be now
used for advanced hacking procedures," he said.

"If ever there was a wake-up call to companies of the need to encrypt
their data, this is it."

* Beladi Nasrallah:

NVidia's GeForce 8800 graphics card could be utilised to
"dramatically" reduce the time needed by hackers to perform brute-
force password cracks, security experts have warned.

Wow, that are news...NOT!

This means that Windows Vista's password system, which would normally
take months to crack using a brute force technique, could be broken in
a matter of days.

What "password system"? User passwords? What is the difference between
Vista passwords and user passwords in other operating systems? And which
kind of passwords can be cracked in 25 days? The standard ones
"password", "myname123") or the better ones
("43Lz&263vC/3!kL209UbO63M§99emCF")?

Questions over questions.

Benjamin

On Feb 14, 9:02*pm, Benjamin Gawert wrote:
* Beladi Nasrallah:

NVidia's GeForce 8800 graphics card could be utilised to
"dramatically" reduce the time needed by hackers to perform brute-
force password cracks, security experts have warned.

Wow, that are news...NOT!

Well, it was a fresh idea for me that you can use the computing power
of a graphics card for doing computations other than for the video
output. Video card is a great parallel processor, so I was fascinated
with the fact that someone was able to find the ways to use it.



This means that Windows Vista's password system, which would normally
take months to crack using a brute force technique, could be broken in
a matter of days.

What "password system"? User passwords? What is the difference between
Vista passwords and user passwords in other operating systems? And which
kind of passwords can be cracked in 25 days? The standard ones
"password", "myname123") or the better ones
("43Lz&263vC/3!kL209UbO63M§99emCF")?

Questions over questions.

Benjamin

In article ,
Beladi Nasrallah wrote:
On Feb 14, 9:02*pm, Benjamin Gawert wrote:
* Beladi Nasrallah:

NVidia's GeForce 8800 graphics card could be utilised to
"dramatically" reduce the time needed by hackers to perform brute-
force password cracks, security experts have warned.

Wow, that are news...NOT!

Well, it was a fresh idea for me that you can use the computing power
of a graphics card for doing computations other than for the video
output. Video card is a great parallel processor, so I was fascinated
with the fact that someone was able to find the ways to use it.

Ever looked at: http://www.nvidia.com/page/hpc.html

NVidia is quite aware of the potential of their GPUs and actively
promoting such use.

Regards,

Patrick.

* Beladi Nasrallah:

Well, it was a fresh idea for me that you can use the computing power
of a graphics card for doing computations other than for the video
output. Video card is a great parallel processor, so I was fascinated
with the fact that someone was able to find the ways to use it.

That is really *very* old news. There have been projects using GPUs for
something else than gfx processing half a decade ago already. And with
the introduction of the Geforce 8 series Nvidia also offered ways to use
their GPUs for other tasks than gfx processing (just do a little search
on "CUDA"), and they are also offering cards with their GPUs but without
any gfx output for exact this purpose. They call this "AudroPlex".

Benjamin

* Beladi Nasrallah:

Well, it was a fresh idea for me that you can use the computing power
of a graphics card for doing computations other than for the video
output. Video card is a great parallel processor, so I was fascinated
with the fact that someone was able to find the ways to use it.

That is really *very* old news. There have been projects using GPUs for
something else than gfx processing already half a decade ago. And with
the introduction of the Geforce 8 series Nvidia also offered ways to use
their GPUs for other tasks than gfx processing (just do a little search
on "CUDA"), and they are also offering cards with their GPUs but without
any gfx output for exact this purpose. They call this "QuadroPlex".

Benjamin

In article ,
Madoc Owain wrote:

[snip]

Seriously though, when I was running SETI@Home, I was hoping someone
would come out with a version that used my GPU, so I could get extra
results completed and edge out my competitors (a lab full of OpenVMS
Alpha systems).

I'm still running it. I know very little about the architecture of the
8800, but would it be capable of running SetBOINC, and be able to crunch
those WUs quickly?

In other words: would the SetBOINC algorithm map nicely to the
architecture of the 8800 GPU?

Regards,

Patrick.

Madoc Owain wrote:
I have a Beowulf cluster of 8800 GPUs.. unfortunately, my home has now
been zoned as an airport and I'm permanently deaf.

Seriously though, when I was running SETI@Home, I was hoping someone
would come out with a version that used my GPU, so I could get extra
results completed and edge out my competitors (a lab full of OpenVMS
Alpha systems).

Although they don't have it available for the nVidia GPUs yet,
Folding@Home (se my sig) has a version available for some of the recent
series of the ATi cards. Also a version for the PS3.

--
"Outback" Jon - KC2BNE

AMD Opteron 165 ) and 6.1 GHz of other AMD power...
http://folding.stanford.edu - got folding? Team 53560

2006 ZG1000A Concours "Blueline" COG# 7385 CDA# 0157

In article , Benjamin Gawert wrote:
* Beladi Nasrallah:

Well, it was a fresh idea for me that you can use the computing power
of a graphics card for doing computations other than for the video
output. Video card is a great parallel processor, so I was fascinated
with the fact that someone was able to find the ways to use it.

That is really *very* old news. There have been projects using GPUs for
something else than gfx processing already half a decade ago. And with
the introduction of the Geforce 8 series Nvidia also offered ways to use
their GPUs for other tasks than gfx processing (just do a little search
on "CUDA"), and they are also offering cards with their GPUs but without
any gfx output for exact this purpose. They call this "QuadroPlex".

Benjamin
There was aposting just like this 2 months ago about them using the PS3 to do
the same thing.

On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:02:35 +0100, Benjamin Gawert wrote:
What "password system"? User passwords? What is the difference between
Vista passwords and user passwords in other operating systems? And which
kind of passwords can be cracked in 25 days? The standard ones
"password", "myname123") or the better ones
("43Lz&263vC/3!kL209UbO63M§99emCF")?

D00d, where'd you get my password from?!?


--
chuk