Weak passwords
From Total Malware Info
By Vitaly Kiktenko, Virus Analyst.
It was recently noticed that a lot of new malware, especially worms and viruses, use dictionary brute-force attacks on network computers to spread their copies on their shared folders. Example of such viruses can be Virus.Win32.Alman.a, Worm.Win32.Fujack.a. Those viruses try to connect with “Administrator” or “Guest” account using one of the following passwords:
zxcv qazwsx qaz qwer !@#$%^&*() !@#$%^&*( !@#$%^&* !@#$%^& !@#$%^ !@#$% aasdf sdfgh !@#$ 654321 123456 12345 1234 123 111 1234 password 6969 harley 123456 golf pussy mustang 1111 shadow 1313 fish 5150 7777 qwerty baseball 2112 letmein 12345678 12345 ccc admin 5201314 qq520 1 12 123 1234567 123456789 654321 54321 111 000000 abc pw 11111111 88888888 pass passwd database abcd abc123 sybase 123qwe server computer 520 super 123asd Ihavenopass godblessyou enable xp 2002 2003 2600 alpha 110 111111 121212 123123 1234qwer 123abc 007 a aaa patrick pat administrator root sex god foobar secret test test123 temp temp123 win pc asdf pwd qwer yxcv zxcv home xxx owner login Login pw123 love mypc mypc123 admin123 mypass mypass123
These passwords are considered “weak” because they are too easy to guess. Using such passwords is not safe, not only because viruses can easily infect your PC but also because other people can gain access to your confident data.
A strong password consists of a minimum of six characters (the more characters - the stronger password). A combination of both uppercase and lowercase letters also makes the password stronger. Strong passwords usually avoid words found in the dictionary and also do not contain parts of the user’s name and should never belong to any serialization, such as mypass123, mypass124, mypass125... and so on. A combination of two or more words with a mixture of uppercase and lowercase alphabets usually makes a strong password.
Password dictionary attacks are also performed on SQL Servers by some of the advanced backdoors. The main purpose of such backdoors is searching for exploits and weaknesses on network machines and informing the attackers of it. For example Backdoor.Win32.VanBot searches the network for computers running MS SQL server and tries to connect to DB administrator account using one of the following passwords:
administrator administrador administrateur administrat admins admin adm password1 password passwd pass1234 pass pwd 007 1 12 123 1234 12345 123456 1234567 12345678 123456789 1234567890 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 test guest none demo unix linux changeme default system server root null qwerty mail outlook web www internet accounts accounting home homeuser user oem oemuser oeminstall windows win98 win2k winxp winnt win2000 qaz asd zxc qwe bob jen joe fred bill mike john peter luke sam sue susan peter brian lee neil ian chris eric george kate bob katie mary login loginpass technical backup exchange fuck bitch slut sex god hell hello domain domainpass domainpassword database access dbpass dbpassword databasepass data databasepassword db1 db2 db1234 sa sql sqlpassoainstall orainstall oracle ibm cisco dell compaq siemens hp nokia xp control office blank winpass main lan internet intranet student teacher staff
To better protect your valuable data from such kind of attacks we recommend using specialized “strong” password generatation software. Also it would be a good idea to change passwords frequently – for example at least once a week.
