Concerning passwords
A popular first step to take in order to acquire access to a system is to just use a password that you have obtained for an account on the system. Of course, obtaining this password is the important part as you must find a way to obtain a password for a valid account. This is where a process known as password-cracking or password-recovery comes into play.
So, what's the definition of the term password-cracking? Well, despite what movies and TV have to say about the topic, password-cracking is a catchall term for a group of techniques used to gain possession of this piece of information. You can expect to use any individual, or combination of, methods during the process—each of which has its pros and cons. You can guess a password blindly or you may have some information about the system owner that may make the guessing process easier. Other techniques to obtain passwords may involve repeatedly guessing or exploiting security weaknesses in a system.
