An Architecture for Distributed Dictionary Attacks to Cryptosystems
Massimo Bernaschi, Mauro Bisson, Emanuele Gabrielli, Simone Tacconi · Journal of Computers · 2009
Abstract — We describe a distributed computing platform to carry out large scale dictionary attacks against cryptosystems compliant to the OpenPGP standard. Moreover, we describe a simplified mechanism to quickly test passphrases that might protect a specified private key ring. Only passphrases that pass this test complete the (much more time consuming) full validation procedure. This approach greatly reduces the time required to test a set of possible passphrases. Index Terms — OpenPGP, Volunteer computing, Middleware. I.