1Password, a popular system and online security program has confirmed that it is now ready to tackle John the Ripper, but users need to have a good Master Password.
The pre-eminent password cracking tool, John the Ripper, runs on fifteen different platforms, and can be run against various encrypted password formats including several crypt password hash types. It is, in fact, one of the most popular password testing and breaking programs on the internet.

As reported on the official blog of Agilebits website, the team said that it is strengthening its defenses.

“We’ve always known that that there is nothing we can do prevent someone developing an automated Master Password guessing tool that is tuned to 1Password data, and so we’ve designed our security around the assumption that such tools do exist. What we can do (and have done) is make any password guessing program work extra hard, so that it can only guess thousands of passwords per second instead of many millions per second. We also have been advising people to make sure that their 1Password Master Passwords are strong, unique, and memorable.”

Just recently, we got to hear that John the Ripper is now being adapted toward cracking password managers Master Passwords. This means 1Password has to amplify its efforts to tackle the master password cracking tool. Working with two components, the tool converts the relevant part of the Agile Keychain Format into an input file using one component, and tests against that input file to recognize a successful guess via second component. 1Password team revealed that as password guessing never preventable, what they do is slow down the way tool works, leaving it to guessing a few thousand passwords, rather than in million counts. Besides, another best way to prevent an attack is to keep a really strong master password.

Security breaches, across the IT industry, are mostly due to weak passwords. And only a few times, due to weak computer encryption issues. A recent example is the the incident of Dropbox, when it started receiving complaints from their users that they’ve been receiving spam on e-mail addresses only used for Dropbox. The company looked into the matter and found out that usernames and passwords hacked from other sites were used to gain access to Dropbox accounts. This shows that people use similar credentials on different websites, and end up losing data or privacy.

Looking at the entire scenario, Dropbox will soon have a two-factor authentication wherein users can turn on the option of requiring two proofs of identity, like a password and a temporary code sent to a user’s phone, when they sign in.

So many times we insist and advise readers to change their password frequently, and not using the same credentials for all websites. If it’s tough for you to remember all your passwords for multiple sites, you can either make a list that only you have access to, or use a service like 1Password to help you keep your passwords safe.