Preventing Brute Forcing of Mission-Critical System Account

Preventing Brute Forcing of Mission-Critical System Account

Prev Question Next Question

Question

A mission-critical system has been identified as having an administrative system account with attributes that prevent locking and change of privileges and name.

Which would be the BEST approach to prevent successful brute forcing of the account?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

B.

Creating a strong random password reduces the risk of a successful brute force attack by exponentially increasing the time required.

Preventing the system from being accessed remotely is not always an option in mission-critical systems and still leaves local access risks.

Vendor patches are not always available, tracking usage is a detective control and will not prevent an attack.

The BEST approach to prevent successful brute-forcing of the administrative system account with attributes that prevent locking and change of privileges and name is to create a strong random password. This will make it more difficult for an attacker to guess the password through brute-force methods.

Option A, preventing the system from being accessed remotely, does not address the issue of a weak password that can be easily brute-forced. Additionally, the administrative system account may need to be accessed remotely for legitimate purposes, such as system maintenance or troubleshooting.

Option C, asking for a vendor patch, may address other security vulnerabilities in the system but does not address the issue of a weak password that can be easily brute-forced.

Option D, tracking the usage of the account by audit trails, can help identify if the account has been compromised, but does not address the issue of a weak password that can be easily brute-forced.

Creating a strong random password for the administrative system account is a critical security measure that can help prevent unauthorized access and protect the mission-critical system. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the password is not shared, written down or easily guessed, and is changed periodically to further enhance security.