AI chatbots are cracking the code: How PassGAN can break into 51% of common passwords in under a minute

• A cybersecurity firm study has revealed that common passwords are vulnerable to AI tools.
• PassGAN, an AI tool can crack 51% of common passwords in less than a minute.
• Here’s how you can create a safe password for your accounts.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing the next big change to the world, and AI chatbots like ChatGPT have made it easier to perform a list of tasks just by sending a prompt. While AI has many benefits, it also comes with several disadvantages.

According to a cybersecurity firm Home Security Heroes report, AI is very good at password cracking and could pose a huge threat to users. The firm used an AI-powered tool, dubbed PassGAN (password generative adversarial network), to test AI’s password-cracking abilities, and here are its results.


In this study, the cybersecurity firm used the PassGAN tool to try and crack a list of over 15 million passwords.

How does PassGAN work?

The PassGAN AI tool uses a generative adversarial network (GAN) to learn the distribution of real passwords from actual password leaks. It can generate multiple passwords to crack a user’s password quickly.

PassGAN can crack 51% of common passwords in a minute

The study has revealed that a shocking 51% of common passwords can be cracked in under a minute, meaning over half of common passwords are completely insecure.

It gets worse, as 61% of these passwords can be cracked in an hour, 71% in a day, and 81% in a month.

Using a password with up to 7 characters can be cracked in under 6 minutes, even if it has symbols. A password with six characters, including passwords that have numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and symbols, can be cracked instantly.

As per the study, passwords with more than 18 characters are ideal against AI tools. Even if you use just numbers, it will take an AI tool ten months to crack the password. On the other hand, if you use an 18-character password that contains numbers, lowercase, and uppercase letters and symbols would take the AI tool six quintillion years, which is six billion billion years.

Tips for selecting a strong password

Here are some tips for creating a strong password that is safe from humans and AI tools.

• Use at least 15 characters in your password.
• Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols in the password.
• Avoid password patterns such as your name, family members, city, and other known names.
• Change your password every 3 to 6 months.
• Avoid using the same password on different platforms.

You can also use password managers and generators to create strong passwords.

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