Weak Cryptographic Hash: Insecure PBE Iteration Count

The iteration count used by a password-based key derivation function is too low.

A key derivation function is used to derive a key from a base key and other parameters. In a password-based key derivation function, the base key is a password and the other parameters are a salt value and an iteration count. An iteration count has traditionally served the purpose of increasing the cost of generating keys from a password. If the iteration count is too low, the feasibility of an attack increases as an attacker can compute "rainbow tables" for the application and more easily reverse hashed password values.

Example 1: The following code uses an iteration count of 50:

  ...
  Rfc2898DeriveBytes rdb8 = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(password, salt,50);
  ...
  

Applications that use a low iteration count for password-based encryption are exposed to trivial dictionary-based attacks, exactly the type of attack that password-based encryption schemes were designed to protect against.

The iteration count used by a password-based key derivation function is too low.

A key derivation function is used to derive a key from a base key and other parameters. In a password-based key derivation function, the base key is a password and the other parameters are a salt value and an iteration count. An iteration count has traditionally served the purpose of increasing the cost of generating keys from a password. If the iteration count is too low, the feasibility of an attack increases as an attacker can compute "rainbow tables" for the application and more easily determine the hashed password values.

Example 1: The following code uses an iteration count of 50:

  ...
  #define ITERATION 50
  ...
  PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC(pass, sizeof(pass), salt, sizeof(salt), ITERATION, EVP_sha512(), outputBytes, digest);
  ...

Applications that use a low iteration count for password-based encryption are vulnerable to trivial dictionary-based attacks -- exactly the type of attack that password-based encryption schemes were designed to protect against.

The iteration count used by a password-based key derivation function is too low.

A key derivation function is used to derive a key from a base key and other parameters. In a password-based key derivation function, the base key is a password and the other parameters are a salt value and an iteration count. An iteration count has traditionally served the purpose of increasing the cost of generating keys from a password. If the iteration count is too low, the feasibility of an attack increases as an attacker can compute "rainbow tables" for the application and more easily determine the hashed password values.

Example 1: The following code uses an iteration count of 50:

...
#define ITERATION 50
...
CCKeyDerivationPBKDF(kCCPBKDF2,
                     password,
                     passwordLen,
                     salt,
                     saltLen
                     kCCPRFHmacAlgSHA256,
                     ITERATION,
                     derivedKey,
                     derivedKeyLen);
...

Applications that use a low iteration count for password-based encryption are exposed to trivial dictionary-based attacks -- exactly the type of attack that password-based encryption schemes were designed to protect against.

The iteration count used by a password-based key derivation function is too low.

A key derivation function is used to derive a key from a base key and other parameters. In a password-based key derivation function, the base key is a password and the other parameters are a salt value and an iteration count. An iteration count has traditionally served the purpose of increasing the cost of generating keys from a password. If the iteration count is too low, the feasibility of an attack increases as an attacker can compute "rainbow tables" for the application and more easily reverse hashed password values.

Example 1: The following code uses an iteration count of 50:

...
$hash = hash_pbkdf2('sha256', $password, $salt, 50);
...

Applications that use a low iteration count for password-based encryption are exposed to trivial dictionary-based attacks, exactly the type of attack that password-based encryption schemes were designed to protect against.

The iteration count used by a password-based key derivation function is too low.

A key derivation function is used to derive a key from a base key and other parameters. In a password-based key derivation function, the base key is a password and the other parameters are a salt value and an iteration count. An iteration count has traditionally served the purpose of increasing the cost of generating keys from a password. If the iteration count is too low, the feasibility of an attack increases as an attacker can compute "rainbow tables" for the application and more easily reverse hashed password values.

Example 1: The following code uses an iteration count of 50:

...
from hashlib import pbkdf2_hmac
dk = pbkdf2_hmac('sha256', password, salt, 50)
...

Applications that use a low iteration count for password-based encryption are exposed to trivial dictionary-based attacks, which is exactly the type of attack that password-based encryption schemes were designed to protect against.

Example 2: The following code sets the cost parameter to 11:

bcrypt_hash = bcrypt(b64pwd, 11)

When using the bcrypt API in Pycryptodome, it is crucial to note that the cost parameter plays a significant role in determining the computational complexity of the underlying hashing process. It is strongly recommended to set the cost parameter to a value of at least 12 to ensure a sufficient level of security. This value directly influences the time taken to compute the hash, which makes it more computationally expensive for potential attackers to carry out brute-force or dictionary attacks.

The iteration count used by a password-based key derivation function is too low.

A key derivation function is used to derive a key from a base key and other parameters. In a password-based key derivation function, the base key is a password and the other parameters are a salt value and an iteration count. An iteration count has traditionally served the purpose of increasing the cost of generating keys from a password. If the iteration count is too low, the feasibility of an attack increases as an attacker can compute "rainbow tables" for the application and more easily determine the hashed password values.

Example 1: The following code uses an iteration count of 50:

require 'openssl'
...
key = OpenSSL::PKCS5::pbkdf2_hmac(pass, salt, 50, 256, 'SHA256')

Applications that use a low iteration count for password-based encryption are exposed to trivial dictionary-based attacks, exactly the type of attack that password-based encryption schemes were designed to protect against.

The iteration count used by a password-based key derivation function is too low.

A key derivation function is used to derive a key from a base key and other parameters. In a password-based key derivation function, the base key is a password and the other parameters are a salt value and an iteration count. An iteration count has traditionally served the purpose of increasing the cost of generating keys from a password. If the iteration count is too low, the feasibility of an attack increases as an attacker can compute "rainbow tables" for the application and more easily determine the hashed password values.

Example 1: The following code uses an iteration count of 50:

...
let ITERATION = UInt32(50)
...
CCKeyDerivationPBKDF(CCPBKDFAlgorithm(kCCPBKDF2),
password,
passwordLength,
saltBytes,
saltLength,
CCPseudoRandomAlgorithm(kCCPRFHmacAlgSHA256),
ITERATION,
derivedKey,
derivedKeyLength)
...

Applications that use a low iteration count for password-based encryption are exposed to trivial dictionary-based attacks -- exactly the type of attack that password-based encryption schemes were designed to protect against.

The iteration count used by a password-based key derivation function is too low.

A key derivation function is used to derive a key from a base key and other parameters. In a password-based key derivation function, the base key is a password and the other parameters are a salt value and an iteration count. An iteration count has traditionally served the purpose of increasing the cost of generating keys from a password. If the iteration count is too low, the feasibility of an attack increases as an attacker can compute "rainbow tables" for the application and more easily reverse hashed password values.

Example 1: The following XML configures an iteration count of 50:

...
    <param name="keyObtentionIterations" value="50"/>
...

Applications that use a low iteration count for password-based encryption are exposed to trivial dictionary-based attacks, exactly the type of attack that password-based encryption schemes were designed to protect against.