Certified Ethical Hacker Certification (CEHv10) Practice Test 2025 - Free CEH Practice Questions and Study Guide

A rule-based attack is a type of password guessing method that utilizes known information about a password to generate possible combinations. This information can include characteristics like the password's length, the types of characters it includes (such as uppercase letters, numbers, or special symbols), and common patterns or rules that certain users might follow when creating passwords (like substituting '3' for 'E' or '0' for 'O').

For example, if an attacker knows that a password is 8 characters long and includes one number, they can use this information to create more effective guesses than a purely random approach. This method streamlines the guessing process, making it more efficient by applying specific rules derived from insights about how people typically create passwords.

In contrast, approaches such as dictionary attacks rely on precompiled lists of commonly used passwords and phrases, while brute force attacks attempt every possible combination without prior knowledge of any password details. Syllable attacks, which aren't widely recognized in technical literature, would not be a standard term associated with password attacks.