Rainbow tables explained: How they work and why they're (mostly) obsolete

Rainbow tables explained: How they work and why they're (mostly) obsolete

Rainbow table definition


A rainbow table is a large, precomputed table designed to cache the output of cryptographic hash functions to decrypt hashed passwords into plaintext. Rainbow tables were invented by IT expert Philippe Oechslin, who published a paper on his work in 2003. The method itself is based on research from the early 1980s by Martin Hellman and Ronald Rivest that explored the performance trade-offs between processing time and the memory needed for cryptanalysis. “Rainbow” refers to the colors used within a table to represent different reduction functions and steps. These create a colorful rainbow with a corresponding number of iterations.

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