wardialer

wardialer

   <security> Almost certainly a shortened version of "WarGames
   dialer", from the film {WarGames}.

   1. {carrier scanner}

   2. A program which attempts to break a {password} of known
   length by iterating thru all possible combinations of
   characters that could make up that password.

   This approach is not feasable for cracking most passwords
   these days.  However, as late as the mid-1980s, some
   long-distance companies required only very short numeric
   access codes (e.g. five digits) to verify the identity of
   their customers.  Wardialers were created which would, running
   unattended, call up long-distance providers' local connect
   numbers and iteratively try possible access codes.  Codes
   which worked were logged for later illicit use.

   These wardialers had a high success rate because of the small
   range of possibilities to iterate through, e.g. 10000 for a
   five digit access code, compared to hundreds of trillions of
   combinations for an eight-character alphanumeric code.

   Long-distance providers soon required longer passwords and
   took advantage of technology for rapidly tracing the phone
   numbers that wardialers were being run from, such that running
   wardialers became pointless and dangerous.

   (1997-03-16)