What is a Rainbow Table?

A rainbow Table is a technological resource for “Cracking” Cryptographic Hash Functions and coming across plaintext Passwords in an Authentication Database. Rainbow tables use a particular Algorithmic matching Characteristic to essentially appearance up the inFormation needed to crack password hashes.

What Does Rainbow Table Mean?

The concept of using rainbow tables or other hash cracking strategies comes from the fundamental use of password hashes in authentication Databases. Any gadget that has password authentication has to shop all those passwords. However, storing the plaintext password leaves the Device extremely liable to unauthorized get right of entry to by means of Hackers. In response, many device administrators started out storing the passwords as hash values.

A rainbow desk is one way to get the plaintext passwords, no matter the protecting hash price strategy cited above. Other techniques consist of a brute pressure Attack or a Dictionary Method. By storing more statistics, rainbow tables can accomplish the equal outcomes as a brute pressure attack with much less Computer processing attempt.