What type of attack is most likely to succeed against hashed passwords recovered during a penetration test?

A rainbow table attack is highly effective against hashed passwords due to the way it exploits the properties of hash functions and precomputed hash values. Rainbow tables are essentially large databases that store the hash values of common passwords alongside their corresponding plain-text passwords. When an attacker retrieves hashed passwords, they can leverage a rainbow table to quickly look up the hash and find the original password without having to compute the hashes themselves in real time. This significantly reduces the time and computational resources required to crack the password.

The effectiveness of this method hinges on the fact that many systems use predictable hashing algorithms without the addition of adequate salting techniques. Salting involves adding random data to the password before hashing, which prevents the use of precomputed tables since each instance of a password would produce a unique hash. Without salting, attackers can efficiently match hash values in the rainbow table to their plain-text counterparts, leading to successful password recovery.

In contrast, while dictionary attacks and brute force attacks can also be employed against hashed passwords, they typically require more time and effort as they involve either guessing common passwords (dictionary) or trying every possible combination (brute force). Man-in-the-middle attacks are unrelated to the context of recovering hashed passwords, as they involve intercepting communication between two parties rather