{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,10]],"date-time":"2026-07-10T07:32:01Z","timestamp":1783668721266,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":96,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,7]],"date-time":"2023-09-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1694044800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Defense Science and Technology Key Laboratory Foundation","award":["6142103032203"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["6142103032203"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Recently, many password guessing algorithms have been proposed, seriously threatening cyber security. In this paper, we systematically review over thirty methods for password guessing published between 2016 and 2023. First, we introduce a taxonomy for classifying the existing methods into trawling guessing and targeted guessing. Second, we present an extensive benchmark dataset that can assist researchers and practitioners in successive works. Third, we conduct a bibliometric analysis to present trends in this field and cross-citation between reviewed papers. Further, we discuss the open challenges of password guessing in terms of diverse application scenarios, guessing efficiency, and the combination of traditional and deep learning methods. Finally, this review presents future research directions to guide successive research and development of password guessing.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e25091303","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,7]],"date-time":"2023-09-07T09:51:37Z","timestamp":1694080297000},"page":"1303","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["A Systematic Review on Password Guessing Tasks"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"25","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6740-0485","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wei","family":"Yu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The 30th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Chuangye Road, Chengdu 610093, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qingsong","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit 95835 of PLA, Urumqi 841700, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hao","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The 30th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Chuangye Road, Chengdu 610093, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wei","family":"Xiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Wuhan Maritime Communication Research Institute, Canglong Avenue, Wuhan 430205, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tao","family":"Chang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Computer, National University of Defense Technology, Deya Road, Changsha 410003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Liangliang","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Northwest Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Biyuan East Road, Xianyang 712000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lulin","family":"Ni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The 30th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Chuangye Road, Chengdu 610093, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qingbing","family":"Ji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The 30th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Chuangye Road, Chengdu 610093, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Wang, D. 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