ITGSS Certified Technology Specialist

If a password uses 26 characters (A-Z), by what factor does a brute force attack's maximum attempts increase when the password length changes from four to six characters?

1. 26

2. 676

3. 1296

4. 15600

The correct answer is: 676

When calculating the potential maximum attempts for a brute force attack on passwords, the number of possible combinations increases exponentially with each additional character. For a password composed of 26 possible characters (the letters A-Z), the total number of combinations is determined by raising the number of character choices to the power of the password length. For a password length of four characters, the number of possible combinations is: 26^4 = 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 = 456976 combinations. For a password length of six characters, the number of possible combinations is: 26^6 = 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 = 308915776 combinations. To determine the increase in potential attempts when the password length changes from four characters to six characters, you can compare the two calculations by finding the ratio of the combinations for six characters to the combinations for four characters: Increase factor = 26^6 / 26^4 = 26^(6-4) = 26^2 = 676. This means that the maximum number of attempts in a brute force attack increases by a factor of 676 when the password length changes from four to six characters. Thus, the answer is correct