If you want to know more details about system security, sign up for SANS classes. They are worth the time and money.
Dictionary attacks were popular 20 years ago.
Which makes me wonder why they need the passwd file. If they’ve got control of the network they can just see the password in transit.
I figured it had already been done...
Actually I am very aware of rainbow tables and if you review my other posts, you will find that I also describe other ways one can obtain the password. I will point out that rainbow tables ARE NOT reversing the hash. A rainbow table is just a more educated brute force attack.
Many SANS classes are worth the money. However, I already have my CISSP and hold patents in cryptography so I’m not really interested in the majority of classes they offer.