Elcomsoft, a Moscow-based software firm, has filed a patent application with the USGPO for a technique that uses off-the-shelf graphics hardware to crack computer passwords. The technique uses the massively parallel processing capabilities of a GPU to accelerate the rate at which a password can be cracked. The company reports that the technique can break passwords 25 times faster than current methods. Passwords that take months to crack using a CPU can be broken in less than a week using the processing capabilities of a GPU.

The approach to password cracking with a GPU is remarkably different than the route a CPU takes. A GPU works on many potential password combinations at the same time, while a CPU evaluates and discards each combination in a linear fashion.

Elcomsoft says it took three months to develop the software, based on the nvidia geforce 8800 GPU software developer kit released in February 2007, and the company plans to integrate the technique into its password-cracking products in the coming months.