Security
security
cryptography
attacks
What is Rainbow Table?
Definition
A rainbow table is a precomputed lookup table mapping hash values to their original plaintext inputs. It allows attackers to crack hashed passwords by looking up the hash instead of brute-forcing it.
Why It Matters
Rainbow tables can crack unsalted MD5 and SHA-1 password hashes in seconds. This is why modern password hashing always uses unique salts — salting makes precomputed tables useless because each salt creates a different hash for the same password.