Don’t Be A Brute: A Programming Assignment For Exposing Undergraduate Students To Computational Complexity And Heuristic Problem Solving Approaches
Stephen S.‐T. Yau · 2020
A programming assignment that was developed for an undergraduate course in computer security in which students simulate a brute force password guessing attack is described.This exercise helps students to understand issues of computability, re-enforces the basic mathematics of combinatorics, and provides a springboard for discussions of heuristic versus brute-force problemsolving approaches.In the context of a course on computer security, the assignment serves to tangibly demonstrate issues with password selection and user policies that apply to this issue.