What is Password Spraying? Prevention & Examples

The modern digital arena exposes organizations to cyber attacks that may penetrate their system exposing sensitive information. One such threat is password spraying where hackers break into the systems using this method. Unlike the traditional brute force, which uses repeated trials of many passwords on a single account, password spraying uses a few passwords that target numerous accounts. This will make the attackers go under the radar of security systems designed to detect multiple failed attempts on one account. For many cybercriminals, exploiting users’ tendency to favor weak passwords could also prove to be relatively easy. Understanding password spraying is a critical thing for organizations looking for ways to strengthen their cybersecurity. Organizations that adopt strong password policies and promote user education in secure password practices can help mitigate the risks of these attacks.

The danger of password spraying has increased due to the frequent use of common passwords. According to our 2022 US Password Practices Report, 56% of respondents admitted to reusing passwords across multiple or all of their accounts.

This article provides a comprehensive guide to understanding password spraying, explaining how it works, its impact on businesses and customers, and, most importantly, how to detect, defend against, and mitigate such attacks.

What Is Password Spraying?

Password spraying is a brute force attack, but it is quite unlike the other form described above. In password spraying, attackers target multiple accounts with a couple of highly common passwords-mostly default ones like “123456,” “password,” or “qwerty.” This technique helps attackers avoid detection since they would not exceed the allowed number of login attempts per account, which may lead to account lockout or security alert. Password spraying exploits the fact that most users have poor passwords that can give an attacker a larger set of potential targets.

Why is Password Spraying Considered a Brute Force Attack?

Password spraying is classified among brute force attacks as it attempts to compromise various accounts through guesswork of passwords. However, the approach used is different from a traditional brute force attack. For instance, brute force attacks usually target one account, and several other passwords are submitted until the correct one arrives.

On the other hand, password spraying has a broad approach when it sprays various common passwords against many accounts. In this regard, this method not only evades detection on the part of such security systems that monitor repeated failed attempts for trying to crack a particular account but also increases the chances of cracking at least one account. Given its reliance on weak passwords, password spraying offers an even more silent and scalable variant of brute force attacks.

How Password Spraying Attacks Work

Password spraying attacks are methodical, stealthy, and therefore challenging to detect; it is becoming increasingly a favorite technique for cyberthugs. Often, these attacks follow the pattern of strategic steps wherein they exploit common user behaviors and weaknesses in password management.

1. Initial Reconnaissance: In nearly every incident, an attacker will first collect a list of valid usernames or e-mail addresses. These could be obtained through phishing attacks where the attacker might dupe an individual into revealing his credentials or by using leaked data from earlier breaches. Publicly available information on social media and other websites also provides enough usernames for an attacker to target.
2. Choosing Common Passwords: Hackers pick a few common or poor passwords used in different organizations. Some of them are very easy to guess, which include “123456,” “password,” variations of the company name, etc. The reason behind it is that most of the users do not practice best practices in creating passwords; hence it becomes easy for hackers to gain unauthorized access.
3. Attempting Logins: Now that the attackers have the list of usernames and common passwords, login attempts start happening across the accounts involved. They do this in such a manner that the account may only experience a few chances of passwords. That means that they will not alert or break any lockouts or detection mechanisms most systems are programmed with that anticipate repeated successful login attempts on an account.
4. Gaining Access: One of the substituted passwords must work for access to the target account. The access then achieved can be used to further exploit, including stealing sensitive data, location changes within the network, or elevation of privileges to assume other accounts or systems. A malicious activity spectrum from simple data exfiltration to malware deployment is possible inside the attack.

Common Signs of a Password Spraying Attack

Since the password spraying is sneaky and targeted, it is quite challenging for someone to realize that a password spray attack is going on. However, some definite signs are important indicators of such attacks occurring.

1. Multiple Failed Logins Across Accounts: One of the most defining signs of a password spraying attack is the occurrence of multiple failed login attempts across various accounts coming from the same source of IP or a given geographical location. If your organization is seeing a large number of failed logins originating from a single source, then that could be a sign that an attacker is systematically trying a limited set of passwords across many accounts.
2. Unusual Access Patterns: The second is unusual patterns of access within your network. If accounts are accessed at odd hours-that is, at times when the typical owners of the account aren’t around or weren’t anticipated to be around a strange geographic location, then it could be an indication of unauthorized attempts to breach those accounts. Such patterns often reveal attackers trying to take advantage of weak passwords at times when the activity level of user accounts is low.
3. Increased Authentication Requests: Sudden spikes in authentication requests within a short period of time are another red flag. Increased login attempts, especially from the same source in your system logs, might indicate that an attacker is trying, with continuous attempts, to breach multiple accounts using password-spraying techniques.

Impact of Password Spraying

Unlike this traditional brute-force attack, targeted only at one account, the attacker will base his action on a common tendency of the users to use weak or commonly used passwords, hence making it easy to gain unauthorized access to accounts. The impacts of successful password spraying attacks on organizations and individuals can be severe. Their knowledge is crucial in framing strong security measures that may help curb the risks.

• Data Breaches: Following the successful implementation of these attacks, what usually occurs are large breaches of data. Attackers begin to believe that the social security numbers and financial data of users are their chattels because they can steal identities or sell them on the dark web. For organizations, compromised business data and intellectual property can result in competitive disadvantages and loss of client trust.
• Financial Losses: Data breaches in an organization come with very high financial costs. Response costs include forensic investigation and system restoration may be expensive. Legal costs in the form of lawsuits by affected customers may financially bleed the company. Regulatory fines imposed for failing to comply with laws such as GDPR or CCPA only add more financial instability.
• Reputational Damage: A password spraying attack would indeed have a strong reputational impact, as it can lead to a loss of customer trust that may take many years to recover. Negative publicity could also damage the brand image of the organization and might divert potential clients away; and broken partnerships could emerge based on stakeholders reassessing their relationship with a breached entity.
• Psychological Impact on Individuals: Individuals whose information is compromised may experience anxiety and emotional distress, particularly concerning their financial safety. This can lead to a loss of confidence in online services and the daunting process of recovering from identity theft, leaving victims feeling vulnerable and violated long after the attack.

How Password Spraying Affects Businesses

The major effects of a password spraying attack will be critical and will go beyond immediately posturing the security to the longevity of the organization. These impacts should be well understood by businesses so that they can devise the best security measures to safeguard their valuable assets.

1. Loss of Intellectual Property: Perhaps the most drastic consequence of the password spraying attack is the loss of intellectual property. Once unauthorized access is obtained through this attack, all sensitive business information, proprietary technologies, and trade secrets can be easily stolen by the perpetrator. Such intellectual property is typically the competitive advantage of a company. The loss can lead to financial loss when the proprietary information is compromised because competitors get to know how to replicate products or services without investing in further research and development. In addition, loss of proprietary information can damage the market position of a company and can also degrade its reputation among customers and partners.
2. System Disruption: Once attackers have gained access to a business’s network through password spraying, they escalate privilege and start wreaking havoc inside the systems. Escalation can lead to severe disruption of operations such as turning off systems or services. In addition, further attacks such as ransomware are deployed where organizations cannot access their data and get paid to restore it. Such shocks can completely halt an entire business, thereby eroding productivity, revenue, and customer confidence. Rehabilitation may also require huge recoveries that take away from regular business functions.
3. Compliance Violations: Password spraying attacks are considered severe compliance violations, especially for regulated industries. The breach of data from such an attack exposes sensitive information, such as customer details, employee records, and proprietary business data. Regulatory bodies have enacted harsh data protection laws like the General Data Protection Regulation, HIPAA, and so on. Thus, if a company fails to protect this information in the right manner, it gets severe penalization and fines. Apart from the monetary impacts, a firm suffers loss of customers’ confidence and suffers from reputational damages.

How Password Spraying Attacks Affect Your Customers

Password spraying attacks can have serious repercussions for customers, particularly when their accounts are compromised. As attackers gain access, the fallout extends beyond immediate financial loss to significant emotional and psychological impacts. Customers face not only the risk of financial theft but also the potential for long-term identity theft. Furthermore, the breach of trust can lead to a diminished relationship with the business, affecting customer loyalty and retention.

1. Stolen Personal Information: Stolen credit card numbers, addresses, and social security numbers might be obtained. All that kind of personal information will subsequently be used for identity theft, fraudulent purchases, or opening unauthorized accounts – and will then permanently appear on the dark web.
2. Account Takeover: When a hacker gets control of the customer’s account, a variety of fraudulent activities may occur. This can include unauthorized transactions, changes of account passwords, and other services related to accounts. The ripples can be severe. The victim may face huge losses financially and a tedious process in regaining control of the accounts.
3. Loss of Trust: The customers may lose trust in the business affected by a data breach. Trust can be a master catalyst for relationship longevity, and once lost, it is hard to regain confidence. There will probably be a severe loss of customer loyalty. Customers affected by a data breach are more likely to shift over to competitor firms that are perceived by them to be safe.
4. Emotional Distress: A password spray attack is much more psychologically distressing as the victim would be in a state of fear about the theft of identity along with loss of money, creating stress and anxiety, and affecting the well-being as a whole. This emotional trauma has lifelong implications where users become apprehensive about using online services or sharing personal information in the future.

How to Detect Password Spraying Attacks

Password spraying attack detection is a crucial step toward the protection of customer accounts and sensitive information within organizations. Proactive monitoring and analysis of login activity can help identify malicious behavior before it causes damage. Depending on specific detection strategies, businesses can improve their security posture and respond rapidly to emerging threats.

1. Monitor Login Failures: A good organization should monitor and analyze login failures based on a number of accounts. Written repeated attempts using the same passwords may indicate a threat actor who is systematically attempting to gain access to accounts. This allows organizations to take immediate actions, which may abort a possible breach at a tendentious moment.
2. Analyze Geographic Patterns: This would be in relation to login attempts from unknown or geographically unrelated places in order to verify unauthorized logins. An example could be when a login attempt is initiated from a country where the organization is not known to conduct business; it would most likely be a password-spraying attack. With such analysis of these patterns, businesses can flag suspicious activity and follow up.
3. Set Account Lockout Thresholds: A set of policies lock accounts after a certain number of login failures and may help prevent password spraying attacks. In addition to this, an organization will prevent the attacker from continuing his attempts and is aware of the possibility of a security threat. For example, if accounts have been locked in a short time frame, then it might be possible to talk of a coordinated attack.
4. Utilize Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Apart from directly not detecting password spraying attempts, it strongly minimizes the chances of unauthorized access. Even though the attacker guesses the right password, he would still need to use another form of authentication for his account. This added layer of security can deter attackers and prevent the takeover of customer accounts.

How to Prevent Password Spraying?

The approach to password spraying attack defense is proactive and multi-layered, enhancing authentication mechanisms and strengthening total security. Organizations can best immunize themselves against such attacks through robust policies and monitoring systems.

1. Enforce Strong Password Policies: This forces a user to create a complex password that has both uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. That makes it harder for attackers to guess passwords, thus reducing the likelihood of successfully attacking by this type of password spraying. Furthermore, educating users on the need to maintain different credentials for all accounts further strengthens security.
2. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Use a second layer that would be either an SMS verification code, authentication app, or biometric recognition. If an attacker guesses the correct passwords, MFA would make access much harder for the unauthorized parties.
3. Regularly Rotate Passwords: Users should be encouraged to change their passwords regularly, especially after a security breach or suspected attempts. The more frequently an organization changes its passwords, the lesser the window of opportunity it gives an attacker, and the fewer instances of compromised accounts are likely to occur.
4. Monitor for Unusual Login Activity: This refers to the identification of abnormal login attempts based on patterns of suspicious activity with the use of tools such as repeated failed log-ins coming from the same IP address or log-ins resulting from unknown geographic regions. This usually prompts organizations to flag the activity and be proactive about taking action against the threat.
5. Use IP Whitelisting: The permission of logins may be restricted by allowing log-ins to occur only from known or trusted IP addresses or geographic locations. Hence, a sensitive account entered by the user is accessed only by authorized users. It would be quite tough for hackers to try any sort of entry because they would be accessing only the allowed systems.

Real-World Password Spraying Attacks (Examples)

Password spraying attacks have impacted a few high-profile organizations, showing just how much damage these can inflict on companies and their customers. As shown in the examples below, even large, well-known companies are potential victims of such breaches with disastrous consequences including data breaches, financial loss, or reputational damage. Here are two examples where attackers successfully used password spraying or closely related techniques:

• Dunkin’ Donuts (2018)

A credential stuffing attack took place against Dunkin’ Donuts in 2018. Hackers used stolen credentials from other breaches to borrow customer accounts with Dunkin’ Donuts. Then they indulged in unauthorized purchases and sucked away loyalty points from the customers’ accounts. This might have caused not only monetary loss for the respective customers but also some serious damage to the brand. Dunkin’ Donuts had to undertake major remediation processes that involved customer notification, resetting passwords, and augmenting security. The cost of response in terms of the incident itself and in losing the trust of customers proved to be a heavy burden on the company.

• Citrix (2019)

A leading software company, Citrix, was compromised through a password-spraying attack in 2019. This attack provided the attackers with access to Citrix’s internal network, where they accessed more than 76,000 people’s personal and sensitive information. Data comprising Social Security numbers, financial details, and other sensitive corporate data were compromised in the breach. The incident was highlighted by the regulatory bodies, and Citrix had to spend a heavy amount in terms of lawyer fees, in response to the breach, and to incur damage control. It highlighted the vulnerabilities of password spraying attacks and struck a much-needed chord for showing the need for having firmer cybersecurity mechanisms to protect a company’s internal networks against such attacks.

How Can SentinelOne Help?

Today, password spraying poses a grave danger to organizations in the great digital world. In order to counter such potential threats and therefore business security, companies need solutions as advanced as SentinelOne’s Singularity™ Platform. This platform protects you and your organization by building defenses against every kind of cyber attack, including spray passwords. Here are some ways the Singularity™ Platform can help:

1. Behavioral AI Detection: The Singularity™ platform uses Behavioral AI to detect potential password-spraying attacks with advanced capabilities such as monitoring active logins and tracking irregularities within the login streams. It is proactive against potential threats since it flags activities suspected of a password spraying attack right in real time. The platform applies machine learning algorithms to the changing methods of attacks, enabling your organization to be ahead of cyber adversaries.
2. Zero Trust Security: Operating under a Zero Trust framework, SentinelOne ensures that every access request is thoroughly validated, eliminating the assumption that internal users are trustworthy. This means that even if an attacker successfully guesses a password, they cannot access sensitive data or systems without further authentication. By implementing strict access controls, the platform significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized logins and enhances the overall security posture of your organization.
3. Automated Threat Response: With Singularity™ Platform, the automated threat response systems would immediately isolate the affected accounts and files and alert the system administrators about a potential compromise of the accounts. The platform benefits an organization by mitigating the damage potential of an attack on the organization and increasing its ability to respond to threats with swiftness and effectiveness.

Conclusion

Password spraying is a serious and yet still growing type of assault in today’s digital world where both people and organizations are being targeted. It takes a holistic understanding of how these attacks actually work, with strong detection, password spraying mitigation, and prevention strategies, to fight them off effectively. For businesses to dramatically reduce their risk of succumbing to these attacks, it will include strong password policies, monitoring login activity to identify suspicious patterns regularly, and the implementation of multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Advanced security solutions, whether AI-powered behavioral monitoring or Zero Trust frameworks, would help the system add a layer of defense to detect and respond to threats in real-time. Organizations that adopt proactive security measures ensure their sensitive data and user accounts are protected from being compromised. Vigilance and continuous updates in security practices help avoid password spraying in a regularly updating threat environment and, therefore, safeguard digital assets.

FAQs

1. What is a password-spraying attack?

Password spraying attack is a form of brute-force attack, in which attackers try to gain unauthorized access using a few common passwords on many accounts instead of making multiple guesses on one account. This minimizes the chances of getting detected as it largely avoids account lockouts.

2. What are the key indicators of a password-spraying attack?

Key indicators of password spraying include multiple failed login attempts from the same IP address, unusual access patterns-for example, logins from geographic locations not typical for the organization lockouts, and an increase in authentication requests within a short time frame. These might indicate that an attack is being launched, and monitoring for them can help detect potential attacks early.

3. What are the 3 main types of password attacks?

The three main types of password attacks are:

• Brute Force Attacks: The attackers try every combination of passwords until they get the right password for a specific account.
• Password Spraying: A password spraying attack is done using a few common passwords on numerous accounts. This type of attack rarely gets detected.
• Phishing Attacks: Cyber hackers convince users to hand over their passwords by sending fake emails or websites that appear legitimate.

4. What is the difference between brute forcing and password spraying?

The primary difference lies in their approach: brute force attacks involve trying numerous passwords on a single account until successful, whereas password spraying attempts a small number of commonly used passwords across many accounts to find a match, which is often more discreet and harder to detect.

5. Which industries are most targeted by password spraying?

Industries with a large user population and sensitive data for instance, finance, healthcare, and governments tend to be targeted the most. These industries are normally resourceful in information that can be exploited thus making them the most admirable target for cybercriminals.

6. How do you mitigate password spraying?

To mitigate password spraying attacks, organizations should:

• Implement strong password policies that demand complex and unique passwords.
• Deploy MFA that adds an extra layer of security.
• Track login activity for suspicious patterns or repeated consecutive failed log-ins.
• Restrict the number of failed logins before account suspension.
• Implement IP whitelisting to access accounts only from known good sources.