Gathering Passwords

Definition:  Stealing the password of a site.

Difficulty Rating:  Generally quite hard.  But it allows so much.
 

Methods:

Idea:   Use any of the previous ways (social enginering, web based trojans, packet sniffing).
Problem: See previous way.

Idea:  Many Unix systems store the password publically available but encrypted.  Just decrypt it.
Problem:  Need to have (user level) access to the machine to begin with.  Only about 1/3 of all passwords can be decrypted.  Password changing programs are getting smarter.

Idea:  Many Unix systems allow anyone access to the keyboard data via X Windows.
Problem:  If they allow this, it;s an easy powerful attack.  Otherwise it's impossible.

Idea:  Just send remote login attempts to a Windows NT machine.
Problem:  Packet filters.  They might be logging remote access attempts.  It's slow (1,152,000 passwords/day max).

Idea:  Replace a *.dll file on a Windows 95 machine.  Wait for the next fool to login.
Problem:  Need to write your own system level dll.  Not targettable.