Cracking Passwords in Forensic Investigations - Scholarly ...

3.0 INTRODUCTION
Chapter 3
Research Methodology
In Chapter 2, the relevant literature on password cracking was reviewed in order to
define the topic and the scope of the current research. A short tabulation of relevant
published research in the area was also made. In this chapter, a selection of published
works is reviewed in depth to locate the methodologies other researchers have used to
do password cracking (Section 3.1). These reviews are used to guide the development
of a research methodology (Section 3.2). From the key problem areas of cost
identified in Section 2.6, the research question, sub-questions, and hypothesis are
developed. The data requirements and analysis are specified in Section 3.3. Section
3.4 discusses the limitations of the proposed research methodology and Section 3.5
provides a conclusion.
3.1 REVIEW OF SIMILAR STUDIES
A review of five published studies is made in the following subsections in order to
identify the methodologies used to do research in the area of password cracking. Each
study has a different perspective on the problem, but when viewed together an
approach, a methodology, and methods can be derived to construct the methodology
of this research. The first paper looks at survey method, the second at cluster
methods, the third cost reduction methods, the fourth probabilistic methods, and the
fifth parallel clustering techniques.
3.1.1 A Survey of, and Improvements to, Password Security
The researcher Klein (1990) conducted a survey in which he outlined common threats
to password security. He also performed password cracking tests to identify the
existence of these threats. Consequently, he proposed the use of a proactive password
checker for the purpose of improving password security.
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