Which of the following differentiates a collision attack from a rainbow table attack?
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A. B. C. D.A.
A collision attack and a rainbow table attack are two different types of attacks used in cracking password hashes.
A collision attack is an attempt to find two different input values that result in the same hash value. The attacker is not interested in the original input values, but rather in finding two inputs that produce the same hash value. The goal is to use this knowledge to create a malicious payload that can bypass the security measures in place.
On the other hand, a rainbow table attack is a precomputed table of all possible plaintext passwords and their corresponding hash values. This table is generated in advance and is used to crack passwords quickly. The attacker compares the hash of the password they want to crack against the hash values in the rainbow table to find a match. Once a match is found, the corresponding plaintext password is revealed.
To differentiate between these two attacks, we need to understand their characteristics.
Option A states that a rainbow table attack performs a hash lookup. This is correct. In a rainbow table attack, the attacker compares the hash value of the password they want to crack against the precomputed hash values in the rainbow table.
Option B states that a rainbow table attack uses the hash as a password. This is incorrect. In a rainbow table attack, the attacker uses the hash of the password to look up the corresponding plaintext password in the precomputed rainbow table.
Option C states that in a collision attack, the hash and the input data are equivalent. This is incorrect. In a collision attack, the attacker is trying to find two different input values that produce the same hash value. The input values are not equivalent to the hash value.
Option D states that in a collision attack, the same input results in different hashes. This is also incorrect. In a collision attack, the attacker is trying to find two different input values that produce the same hash value. The same input value will always produce the same hash value.
Therefore, the correct answer is A. A rainbow table attack performs a hash lookup, whereas a collision attack is an attempt to find two different input values that result in the same hash value.