Twelve RTX 5090 GPUs can crack short (but complex) passwords in days Password complexity and length increases drastic time needed to brute force Drawing in the real world can be faster than Hive Systems’ Worst-Case scenario estimates
CyberSecurity company Hive Systems has released its latest password cruiser for 2025, built around a simulated attack using 12 NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPUs.
Takeaway? If your password is short, simple and predictable, it will not last long. But if you are already using long, unique passwords with a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols, there is little reason to panic.
The RTX 5090 is Nvidia’s most powerful gaming GPU yet, but in Hive Systems’ test it works as a password -cracking machine.
Longer is much better
A hash that represents a password of six characters made of numbers and lowercase letters could take only 14 days to crack using a brute force approach. However, add complexity and length and the timeline grows rapidly. For example, a password of 18 characters using lowercase letters, numbers, uppercase letters and symbols will take approx. 463 Kvintillion years to break.
Research models are a worst case of brute-force attacking scenario, where the hacker has already stolen a Hashed Password Database and uses strong hardware to guess the right hashish. It does not reflect more common attacks such as phishing or password recycling, but it emphasizes why short passwords remain a risk.
It is worth pointing out that PC gamer Remarks, “Passwords could be broken much faster than the numbers here indicate that the software could stumble upon the right one earlier in the process.”
Bcrypt, the hashing algorithm used in its test, is often used to spice up passwords before storing them. While it cannot be turned directly, it can be guessed by generating hashish from millions or billions of possible combinations. This is where GPUs Excel. Parallel treatment makes them ideal for password gestures on scale.
Hive also looked at what would happen if hackers had access to much more power, just as the 20,000 NVIDIA A100 GPUs used to train chatgpt-4. Even then, a password of only 18-character would only take hundreds of years to break.
So what is the lesson here? Password length and character black – especially symbols – still matter. And with consumers’ GPUs that only get faster, it’s a good time to use a password administrator and stop relying on something under 12 characters.
(Image Credit: Hive Systems)
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