Password cracking is the process of recovering passwords from data that
has been stored in or transmitted by a computer system. A common
approach is to repeatedly try guesses for the password. The purpose of
password cracking might be to help a user recover a forgotten password
(though installing an entirely new password is less of a security risk, but
involves system administration privileges), to gain unauthorized access to a
system, or as a preventive measure by system administrators to check for
easily crack able passwords.
