What is "FPGA" that makes it possible to estimate passwords of about 1.75 million stations per second with performance equivalent to 2000 CPUs?

ByGazzat

User can freely customize logic circuitLSI"FPGA(Field Programmable Gate Array) "from a device that performs sophisticated processing such as a communication base station, a large-scale router, a display, a projector, a mobile terminal, etc.Broad fieldsIt is a technology that is utilized in. However, by applying this technology to cracking, it became clear that it is possible to exceed the password overwhelmingly more than the system using a commercially available CPU or GPU.

Accelerating Password Recovery the Addition of FPGA «Advanced Password Cracking? Insight

◆ What is FPGA?
Introduction to FPGAAccording to FPGA, the acronym for "Field Programmable Gate Array" is taken, and "Logic Gate (Gate)" which is "Programmable" (programmable = programmable) in "Field" It means semi-custom LSI which is arranged in the form of "Array".

In addition, the FPGA has built-in logic cells, multipliers, RAM, etc. that make up the circuit, and can customize the circuit by freely combining them. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate unnecessary functions, to configure original CPU specialized for specific calculation purpose in the FPGA, or to replace the function of the microcontroller that was discontinued to FPGA.


As a familiar example, use the FPGA like the following movie "NESIt is also possible to reproduce.

Reproduce Nintendo at FPGA - YouTube


◆ Password analysis using FPGA
According to Vladimir Katalov, ElcomSoft 's CEO issuing various password analysis software, a machine for password analysis composed of FPGA clusters that fits in a 4 U - class enclosure is equivalent to 2000 dual - core CPUs We can demonstrate processing power.

The graph below shows the analysis of WPA-PSK used for wireless LAN encryptionPico FPGAPico SC5 / M501-48, Intel 's CPU Core i7 - 920 · AMD' s GPU Radeon HD 5970 · NVIDIA 's GTX 480. Pico FPGA It is possible to estimate 175,6800 passwords per second, about 439 times the Intel Corei 7-920, about 17 times the AMD GPU Radeon HD 5970, about 58 times the NVIDIA GTX 480, etc. You can see that it boasts overwhelmingly high performance.


Although the FPGA does not immediately replace the CPU or GPU for general market PCs, there are still scenes where you can demonstrate far superior performance than existing products by taking advantage of customizable according to the application It is also clear that it exists as well, and it seems that the day when machines with high processing capacity appear only in a certain specific field are not so far.