PS3’s Cell processor cracks passwords faster

Security researcher Nick Breese used a PS3 to crack supposedly strong  eight-character passwords in a matter of hours.

Typically, previous attempts to crack such passwords took days to get the same result.

Eight-character passwords are used to protect PDF and Zip files as well as those produced by Microsoft Office.

The work to turn the PS3 into a password cracker was carried out by Nick Breese, who works for Auckland-based Security Assessment.

The Cell processor at the heart of the PS3 is the key to speeding up the time it takes to crack a password.

In a presentation given at the Kiwicon security conference in mid-November, Mr Breese said a powerful Intel chip could crank through 10-15 million cycles per second.

The architecture of the Cell processor meant it could speed through 1.4 billion cycles per second.

[ Via BBC News ]

RELATED : A project that harnesses the spare processing power of Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) to help understand the cause of diseases has entered the record books.