L0phtCrack is a password auditing and recovery application (nowadays called LC5) by L0pht Heavy Industries. It is used to test password strength and sometimes to recover lost Microsoft Windows passwords, by using dictionary, brute-force, and hybrid attacks. It is one of the crackers' tools of choice, although most use old versions because of its price. A password is a form of authentication which uses secret data to control access to a resource. ... An audit is a review of a system, document, organization, or anything, usually done by an independent, uninvolved party. ... Password cracking is the process of recovering secret passwords stored in a computer system. ... LØpht (pronounced loft) was a famous hacker collective located in the Boston, Massachusetts area between 1992 and 2000. ... Microsoft Windows is a range of operating environments for personal computers and servers. ... In cryptanalysis, a dictionary attack refers to discovering a password by running through a list of likely possibilities, often a list of words from a dictionary. ... The EFFs US$250,000 DES cracking machine contained over 18,000 custom chips and could brute force a DES key in a matter of days — the photograph shows a DES Cracker circuit board fitted with several Deep Crack chips In cryptanalysis, a brute force attack is a method... In the context of computer networking, cracking (also called black-hat hacking) is the act of compromising the security of a system without permission from an authorized party, usually with the intent of accessing computers connected to the network. ...

The original versions of L0phtCrack were coded by Mudge. L0pht Heavy Industries (pronounced loft) was a famous hacker collective located in the Boston, Massachusetts area between 1992 and 2000. ...

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