Multiple pipelines ftw...

You know all that talk about GPUs being the new CPUs (http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/nvidia-launches-tesla-gpus-are-the-new-cpus/)? Well it's not just a lot of hot, ventilated air. Thanks in large part to the launch of development kits like nVidia's CUDA (http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/25/nvidias-cuda-turns-gpus-into-high-powered-cpus/), Russian outfit Elcomsoft has just filed for a US patent which leverages GPUs to crack passwords. Their approach harnesses the massively parallel processing capabilities of modern graphics cards to make minced-meat of corporate-strength password protection. An NTLM-hashed Microsoft Vista password, for example, can now be cracked in 3 to 5 days (instead of two months) using a simple, off-the-shelf, $150 graphics card -- less complicated passwords can take just minutes. Dial the GPU up to an $800 GeForce 8800 Ultra (http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/03/nvidia-geforce-8800-ultra-reviewed/) and Elcomsoft's approach will crack passwords at a rate some 25 times faster than existing CPU-only approaches. Yippee?

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/24/elcomsoft-turns-your-pc-into-a-password-cracking-supercomputer/