High­End Reconfigurable Systems for Fast Windows´ Password Cracking

One of the most efficient methods for cracking passwords is the one based on ldquorainbow tablesrdquo; those lookup tables are offering an almost optimal time-memory tradeoff in the process of recovering the plaintext password from a password hash generated by a cryptographic hash function. In this paper, we demonstrate the first known system, implemented in a state-of-the-art reconfigurable device that cracks passwords up to 1000 times faster than the software approach. This is achieved by using a highly parallel architecture employing a fine-grained pipeline.