Which of the following attacks is a class of brute force attacks that depends on the higher
likelihood of collisions found between random attack attempts and a fixed degree of permutations?
A.
Phishing attack
B.
Replay attack
C.
Birthday attack
D.
Dictionary attack
Explanation:
A birthday attack is a class of brute force attacks that exploits the mathematics behind the birthday
problem in probability theory. It is a type of cryptography attack. The birthday attack depends on
the higher likelihood of collisions found between random attack attempts and a fixed
degree of permutations.
Answer option D is incorrect. A dictionary attack is a technique for defeating a cipher or
authentication mechanism by trying to determine its decryption key or passphrase by searching
likely possibilities.A dictionary attack uses a brute-force technique of successively trying all the
words in an exhaustive list (from a pre-arranged list of values). In contrast with a normal brute
force attack, where a large proportion key space is searched systematically, a dictionary attack
tries only those possibilities which are most likely to succeed, typically derived from a list of words
in a dictionary. Generally, dictionary attacks succeed because many people have a tendency to
choose passwords which are short (7 characters or fewer), single words found in dictionaries, or
simple, easily-predicted variations on words, such as appending a digit.
Answer option A is incorrect. Phishing is a type of internet fraud attempted by hackers. Hackers try
to log into system by masquerading as a trustworthy entity and acquire sensitive information, such
as, username, password, bank account details, credit card details, etc. After collecting this
information, hackers try to use this information for their gain.
Answer option B is incorrect. A replay attack is a form of network attack in which a valid data
transmission is maliciously or fraudulently repeated or delayed. This is carried out either by the
originator or by an adversary who intercepts the data and retransmits it, possibly as part of a
masquerade attack by IP packet substitution.