Rainbow Tables

This page outlines the expected size and availability of rainbow tables.

A rainbow table is a precomputed table for caching the outputs of a cryptographic hash function, usually for cracking password hashes. They are an efficient way to perform time-memory trade-off attacks.

Size of Rainbow Table

Given:

• Each rainbow table entry is composed of 44 bytes (12 bytes + 32 bytes).

• To crack a single password, attackers would need a rainbow table that covers all possible combinations of characters of length 12.

Calculation

• Number of possible combinations:

  • Assuming a character pool of 94 characters (26 lowercase + 26 uppercase + 10 digits + 32 special characters)

  • Number of combinations = 94^12

  • Approximate number of combinations ≈ 4.7 × 10^23

• Size of the rainbow table:

  • Size per entry = 44 bytes

  • Total Size (in bytes) = 44 bytes * 4.7 × 10^23

  • Impossible to store within the current storage capabilities

Even with powerful storage solutions, creating and storing a comprehensive rainbow table for this password space is practically infeasible due to the enormous size required.