dictionary attack

English

WOTD – 12 November 2024

Etymology

From dictionary +‎ attack.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌdɪkʃənəɹi əˈtæk/, /ˌdɪkʃənɹi-/, /ˌdɪkʃnəɹi-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌdɪkʃəˌnɛɹi əˈtæk/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æk
• Hyphenation: dic‧tion‧a‧ry at‧tack

Noun

dictionary attack (plural dictionary attacks)

1. (computing, cryptography) An attempt to illegally access a computer network, website, etc., that uses a list of words (from a dictionary) to try to guess decryption keys or passwords. [from 1980s]

   Hypernym: cyberattack

   Experts warn against using ordinary words as passwords as they are vulnerable to dictionary attacks.

Derived terms

• dictionary attacker

Translations

attempt to illegally access a computer network, website, etc., that uses a list of words to try and guess decryption keys or passwords

• Arabic: هجوم المعجم ?
• Catalan: atac de diccionari m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 字典攻擊／字典攻击 (zìdiǎn gōngjī)

• Czech: slovníkový útok m
• Danish: ordbogsangreb n
• Dutch: woordenboekaanval m
• Finnish: sanakirjahyökkäys
• French: attaque par dictionnaire (fr) f
• German: Wörterbuchangriff (de) m
• Italian: attacco a dizionario m
• Japanese: 辞書攻撃 (じしょこうげき, jisho kōgeki)
• Korean: 사전 공격 (sajeon gonggyeok)
• Lombard: attacch a dizionari ?
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Malayalam: നിഘണ്ടു ആക്രമണം (nighaṇṭu ākramaṇaṁ)
• Mongolian: толь бичгийн халдлага (tolʹ bičgiin xaldlaga)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ordbokangrep n

• Persian: حمله لغت‌نامه‌ای
• Polish: atak słownikowy m
• Portuguese: ataque de dicionário m
• Punjabi: ਡਿਕਸ਼ਨਰੀ ਅਟੈਕ (ḍikśanarī aṭaik)
• Russian: перебо́р по словарю́ m (perebór po slovarjú)
• Spanish: ataque de diccionario m
• Swedish: ordboksattack c
• Thai: การโจมตีด้วยคำจากพจนานุกรม
• Ukrainian: перебір за словнико́м ? (perebir za slovnykóm)
• Vietnamese: tấn công từ điển

See also

• brute force

Further reading

• dictionary attack on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “dictionary attack” (US) / “dictionary attack” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.