Editing Dictionary attack (section)

{{short description|Technique for defeating password protection using lists of likely possibilities}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2018}}

In [[cryptanalysis]] and [[computer security]], a '''dictionary attack''' is an attack using a restricted subset of a keyspace to defeat a [[cipher]] or authentication mechanism by trying to determine its decryption key or [[passphrase]], sometimes trying thousands or millions of likely possibilities<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Junghyun Nam|last2=Juryon Paik|last3=Hyun-kyu Kang|last4=Ung Kim|last5=Dongho Won|date=2009-03-01|title=An off-line dictionary attack on a simple three-party key exchange protocol|url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4799025|journal=IEEE Communications Letters|volume=13|issue=3|pages=205–207|doi=10.1109/LCOMM.2009.081609|issn=1089-7798|url-access=subscription}}</ref> often obtained from lists of past security breaches.