Your iPhone security password could be cracked in just 24 seconds

[RaduTyrsina]

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Every iPhone has a security password when it is used as a tether for a Wi-Fi hotspot. But how capable are these passwords for really protecting your device from a hacker attack? According to a recent paper published this month, they aren’t really.

In a bold experiment, PC Pro’s Jon Honeyball showcased in 2011 that a modern GPU machine can effectively be turned into a password cracking device system that can penetrate anything easily. If you’re wondering, we are indeed talking about graphic cards here and their amazing abilities of infiltrating your system.

Now, the experimented has been replicated by Andreas Kurtz, Felix Freiling and Co. using the iPhone. They have published their findin​​g in a paper that has been entitled: “Usability vs. Security: The Everlasting Trade-Off in the Context of Apple iOS Mobile Hotspots.”

The iPhone passwords are words composed of four to six letters followed by a number. The protection words are said to be randomly generated but, the researchers discovered that these words are extracted from a dictionary that features only 1,842 words. The people behind the study argue that the pool of words should be infinitely larger, so that it could result in a safe unbreakable password. It was also noticed that some words seem to be popping up more than others and so on.

As a result, using a CPU machine, the experimenters were able to crack the password in 50 seconds. When they added 3 more CPU machines the time span was lowered to 24 seconds.

The solution, they argue, does not entail a complicated philosophy. Apple just needs to start using a wider dictionary when it comes to iPhone password generation.

Source: Forbes