A brute force attack is an attack where attackers follow a brute force approach to hack usernames and passwords. Hackers use trial and error methods to get the user account credentials and steal the information on the user accounts. In other words, it is a method of gaining unauthorized access to a system, account, or encrypted data by inserting a huge load of passwords and their combination. In this article, we will provide a brief explanation of brute force attacks and how to detect them.
What is a Brute Force Attack and Why is it so Dangerous?
Brute Force is an attack where black hat hackers use a brute force approach or a combination of letters, alphabets, and numbers to hack the user's password. for example- xyz@123 represents a weak password and this password hacker guess easily. If the user puts the date of birth as a password, hackers guess easily while applying the brute force technique they easily crack the password and steal the user's sensitive information. In brute force attacks, hackers try to guess the password from a user's account. If they tried successfully they easily got the credentials or stole the information of the user account. The diagram of a brute force attack represents a brute force tool where hackers enter the username and password, the application authenticates a username and password, and if the response provided by the hacker is correct then the application succeeds otherwise failure.
These attacks are so dangerous because the hackers can easily crack the password by using free tools and automation scripts to hack the password. Most of the users put in weak passwords, it was pretty easy to guess hackers to crack the password.
Professional or experienced hackers use various types of brute force attack:
Dictionary attack: In dictionary attacks, hackers use the combination of letters, and words in dictionaries and try to crack the password from user accounts.
Simple brute force attack: In a simple brute force attack, hackers try to download the database of passwords from various resources and try to put them and crack the password in user accounts.
Credential stuffing: In credential stuffing, many users use the same password on a different website in that case hackers guess easily and crack the password for the same. Make sure to use strong passwords and unique passwords in every application.
Hybrid brute force attack: It is the combination of a dictionary attack and a simple brute force attack to achieve the success of cracking the password.
Reverse brute force attack: In reverse brute force attack, hackers use already used passwords that target in no. of users present in the database. The motive of this attack is to access user accounts.
How to Detect Brute Force Attacks?
There are various tools and techniques to detect brute-force attacks, We have to check our systems regularly to see if anything is going wrong with them. We have to update our system and put in a strong password that protects us from brute-force attacks. Hackers use target-oriented cyber pirate software and trial and error methods to extract user credentials and steal the information from user accounts. The main sign of a brute force attack is to increase your network traffic. If the network traffic increases in your website it means something suspicious going on your website that makes the performance slower in your website, in that case, make sure to use strong passwords in your website and never share credentials with anyone.
Here are some points that detect brute force attacks-
A strong password is the best way to secure a user account and prevent hackers. A strong password combines uppercase and lowercase letters and any special characters. For example, Rxy123#@ab represents a strong password. Don't use weak passwords, such as 1234 or xyz@123.
Always give login attempts to the application whenever the hacker tries 1 to 2 times but they don't crack the password. When they tried a third time they reached the maximum login attempt to crack the password.
Always monitor the IP address when your employees work remotely. If any of the suspicious persons try to log in from an anonymous IP, block that person.
Multifactor-authentication makes the user secure in any attacks. When the hacker tries to log into the user account, the application asks to enter the code and the code is going in the user's mobile number and email ID. Make sure to always on multi multi-factor authentication to prevent hacker attacks.
Deploy your application in a web application firewall, It secures our web application and blocks any suspicious activity. It protects web-based applications from attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, etc.
How to investigate a brute force attack?
Any investigation into a brute force attack needs a number of steps that identify the scope and impact of the attack, and locate its source. First, check system logs and authentication records for numerous attempts of failed login using the same or a range of IP addresses. This may be one of the most prevalent indicators of brute force activity. Secondly, look out for unusual spikes in login attempts over a period. Look for patterns indicative of automated tools or scripts in the traffic. Check for unauthorized changes or access to any compromised accounts. In addition, assess the security posture of affected systems and implement controls to prevent future attacks, such as rate limiting and account lockout policies, while adding measures for multi-factor authentication. Lastly, consider the need to contact relevant authorities or seek the services of a cybersecurity expert for further analysis and mitigation strategies.
Investigations of brute force attacks involve multiple well-articulated steps to establish the extent of the attack, its impact, and its origin. This will involve:
Log analysis: It will involve scanning the system logs and authentication records for repetitive failed login attempts from the same IP address or even a range of IP addresses. This can be highly indicative of brute force activity.
Monitoring attempts at authentication: Monitor unusual spikes within a very short period in terms of login attempts; this might be an indication of automated attack efforts.
Network Traffic Analysis: Analyze network traffic for patterns indicative of automated tools or script usage, such as constant time intervals between login attempts.
Compromised Accounts Analysis: Investigate the presence of unauthorized changes to any compromised accounts, access to sensitive information, or any other indication of further malicious activity.
System Security Assessment: The security of the affected systems should be assessed. Search for vulnerabilities in systems that may have been exploited by a brute-force attack.
IP Blacklisting: Discover and blacklist all suspicious IPs from where such login attempts are occurring to prevent further access.
Countermeasures Implementation: Use measures to prevent future attacks, including rate limiting, account lockout policies, strong password requirements, and multi-factor authentication.
Detection and Defensive Strategy of Brute Force Attack
Here are the detection strategies of Brute force attack-
Monitoring and logging is the first detection strategy to detect brute force attack. While monitoring and logging the organization checks the system behavior and checks if anything is suspicious in the system. There are advanced tools and technologies that organizations use to protect themselves from brute force attacks or any other attacks.
The second strategy is anomaly detection which identifies brute force patterns. It identifies suspicious activity that going on in our systems.
The third strategy is MFA which stands for multi-factor authentication. It increases the security of our systems. Make sure to enable MFA on your systems to recover from brute force attacks.
Here are the defensive strategies of Brute force attack-
The first strategy is the secure network levels. Make sure to block unknown IP addresses. Geolocation analysis checks the location of web traffic and if there is any suspicious IP address that wants to access your system they don't access it because of Geolocation.
The second strategy is rate limiting which checks how many times users try to log in in a certain amount of time. Make sure to give limited access to the login that reduces the brute force attacks.
The third strategy is the IDS i.e. Intrusion detection system that tracks the network activity and if any suspicious activity is found it sends a warning message. This makes the user alert and recover from hackers.
6 Brute Force Attack Indicators
Here are the six indicators of Brute force attack-
Log in to the user account with an unknown IP address.
Login successfully to the user account after failed attempts.
Using the same IP into multiple accounts and failed login attempts.
An unauthorized person tries to log in to your account.
An unauthorized person used your account in the wrong way.
After successfully logging into the user account, the use of the internet should be increased.
How to Detect and Prevent Brute Force Attacks: Top 8 Effective Ways
Here are the eight effective ways to detect and prevent brute force attacks-
Usage of Strong password- The use of a strong password makes the user credentials strong and makes the brute force attack unsuccessful. Always make sure to don't use weak passwords such as 1234. Use strong passwords such as abc#234@9. The tools such as password manager tools to secure from brute force attacks.
Use multi-factor authentication:- The use of multifactor- authentication is recovered from brute force attacks. If the unauthorized person or hacker tries to log in to your account, the OTP or code is generated by the user's mobile phone or email address. Make sure to enable multi-factor authentication that recovers us from hackers. Also if the hackers put in the correct user credentials they won't be able to log in because the code is generated by using a mobile phone or email address.
Give the login limits:- Give the login attempts in your application so that whenever hackers try to crack the password in more times they don't crack it because of login limits.
Without use of password:- Various authentications do not require manually entering the password, we can use login by voice, face recognition pattern that less the guessing of hackers.
Training your employees:- Trained your employees for tools and security measures that protect them from brute force attacks or any other attacks.
Track your network activity:- Monitor your network activity if found any suspicious in the system. Ekrun system provides various options that monitor the user behavior or user activity and give alerts if any suspicious activity is found.
Give restriction to unknown ip address:- In organizations or companies, hackers are more focused on remote employees to steal the company data. In that situation, hackers try to log in to an unknown IP address to hack the company password. Don't make sure and don't give access to the unknown IP address and block them.
Prevent hacker attacks through SSH:- SSH stands for secure shell. It is the protocol present in IT infrastructure. Hackers use SSH to try to access the server and steal the user credentials. Make sure to make the root inaccessible through a secure shell so that it hardens from hackers to crack the passwords.
Conclusion
As technology increases, there are various cyber security tools and techniques that prevent brute force attacks or any other cyber attack. So, Always stay connected with the latest tools and techniques to secure from hackers.
