Which statement best describes the role of password attacks in the broader context of credential and access security?

They are a primary method attackers use to compromise identity-based access controls

They are used exclusively to gain physical access to server rooms

They are only effective against systems that do not use encryption

They are a defensive technique used to audit password strength

A security team is reviewing their incident response plan after a password spraying attack. They want to add a control that detects this type of attack early. Which monitoring approach would be MOST effective?

Alerting on multiple failed logins for the same account within a short time

Alerting on any login attempt using a common password

Alerting on a high number of failed logins across many different accounts from the same source

Alerting on a single successful login from a new geographic location

An attacker has obtained a database of password hashes from a website. The attacker wants to recover as many plaintext passwords as possible in the shortest time. Which technique is most efficient for this goal?

Use a pure brute force attack that tries every possible character combination

Perform a password spraying attack against the website's login page

Use a pass-the-hash attack against the website's servers

Use a dictionary attack with a large wordlist and rule-based mutations

GIAC Certified Incident Handler

Domain 4Objective 1

Attacking Passwords GCIH Practice Questions (Page 4)

Part of the Credential and Access Security domain, which makes up ~18% of our current practice bank. GIAC (SANS) does not publish an official question count, but from its 240-minute exam (~95–160 total, ~17–29 in this domain), expect 6–10 from this objective — we provide 41 practice questions to prepare you well beyond it. (estimate)

41questions here

9free pages

8concepts

Questions 16–20

16foundation · easy
Which statement best describes the role of password attacks in the broader context of credential and access security?
Select an answer first
17foundation · easy
An attacker uses a wordlist of common passwords and then appends two digits to each word (e.g., 'password01', 'password02'). Which password cracking technique does this describe?
Select an answer first
18application · medium
A security team is reviewing their incident response plan after a password spraying attack. They want to add a control that detects this type of attack early. Which monitoring approach would be MOST effective?
Select an answer first
19application · medium
An attacker has obtained a database of password hashes from a website. The attacker wants to recover as many plaintext passwords as possible in the shortest time. Which technique is most efficient for this goal?
Select an answer first
20foundation · easy
Which protocol's authentication mechanism is specifically targeted by pass-the-hash attacks?
Select an answer first

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Attacking Passwords GCIH Practice Questions (Page 4)

Questions 16–20

Which statement best describes the role of password attacks in the broader context of credential and access security?

An attacker uses a wordlist of common passwords and then appends two digits to each word (e.g., 'password01', 'password02'). Which password cracking technique does this describe?

A security team is reviewing their incident response plan after a password spraying attack. They want to add a control that detects this type of attack early. Which monitoring approach would be MOST effective?

An attacker has obtained a database of password hashes from a website. The attacker wants to recover as many plaintext passwords as possible in the shortest time. Which technique is most efficient for this goal?

Which protocol's authentication mechanism is specifically targeted by pass-the-hash attacks?

Keep studying — Credential and Access Security