Question

if an application uses salting when creating passwords, what factors should a forensics examiner consider when attempting to recover passwords?
a. there are no concerns because salting doesnt affect password - recovery tools.
b. salting can make password recovery extremely difficult and time consuming.
c. salting applies only to os start - up passwords, so there are no serious concerns for examiners.
d. the effect on the computers cmos clock could alter files date and time values.

Explanation:

Salting adds a unique random value to each password before hashing, meaning precomputed rainbow tables (used for quick password recovery) are ineffective. Forensic examiners must perform brute-force or targeted attacks tailored to each unique salt, which drastically increases the time and computational resources needed for password recovery. Options a, c, and d are incorrect: salting directly impacts recovery tools, applies to many application passwords (not just OS start-up), and has no connection to the CMOS clock.

Answer:

b. Salting can make password recovery extremely difficult and time consuming.