Originally Posted By: ireckon
If there is access to the hashed password table, that's a completely different ballgame. As far as I'm concerned, that falls under the umbrella of "stealing a person's password". All bets are off at that point. It really doesn't matter how long or how random your password is.


The vast majority of password thefts come from stealing a hashed password table or compromising a workstation and either stealing passwords stored in a browser or sniffing keystrokes.

No amount of password complexity can help against any of those scenarios when faced with a determined attacker. However, most attackers aren't determined enough to crack long complex random passwords. If nothing else, such a password may give you time to find out about the breach and change your password before it's cracked.

For password attacks against user interfaces, long complex passwords are very effective.