• Lightfire228@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    edit-2
    10 hours ago

    Yes, and no.

    If the password is stored properly (hashed and salted), then a high entropy PW will make it nearly impossible for your PW to be extracted from a database dump / data leak

    On the other end, if the PW is stored as plain-text, a high entropy PW is useless.

    In between, a weak hash algorithm or no salt, a high entropy PW still makes it much harder to extract, but it depends


    In general, 2FA is more secure, since it combines 2 different methods of authentication.

    • something you know: password
    • something you have: the 2FA token (usually on a phone)

    This protects the service (as well as the user) against a broader range of attacks. Such as

    • password reuse (which nearly everyone does)
      • this is particularly bad, because you’re increasing the chance that a weakly designed system will have it’s data stolen, your reused PW and username included
    • phising attempts
      • somewhat
    • low entropy passwords
    • replay attacks
      • since 2FA tokens are usually time bases (TOTP), they expire after a few minutes and can’t be reused if an attacker manages to intercept one

    Among others