Johnson is a professional hacker who targeted an organization’s customers and decided to crack their...

The scenario described involves Johnson using a list of possible passwords, which he has ranked by probability, and systematically entering them into the system to discover the correct one. This method is known as a dictionary attack, where an attacker uses a prearranged list of likely passwords—often derived from lists of common passwords or phrases—and tries them one by one. This is different from a brute force attack, which would involve trying all possible combinations, and a rainbow table attack, which uses precomputed hash values to crack encrypted passwords. Password guessing is a less systematic approach that doesn’t necessarily involve a ranked list of passwords. References: The information provided aligns with the knowledge domains of the EC-Council Certified Security Specialist (E|CSS) program, which includes understanding various types of attacks and their methodologies as part of the ethical hacking and network defense curriculum1.

The scenario described involves Johnson, who has a list of valid customers and a list of possible passwords ranked by probability, which he uses to systematically attempt to log in to the target system. This method is known as a dictionary attack. In a dictionary attack, the hacker uses a list of likely passwords—often derived from lists of common passwords or phrases—and tries them one by one. This differs from a brute force attack, which involves trying all possible combinations of characters until the correct one is found.

A dictionary attack is more efficient than brute force because it relies on the likelihood that people will use common words or phrases for passwords, making it a targeted approach based on probability rather than random attempts. Therefore, the correct answer is C, as it best describes the technique used by Johnson in the given scenario.