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Guessing Entropy

Abbreviation(s) and Synonym(s):

None

Definition(s):

  A measure of the difficulty that an Attacker has to guess the average password used in a system. In this document, entropy is stated in bits. When a password has n-bits of guessing entropy then an Attacker has as much difficulty guessing the average password as in guessing an n-bit random quantity. The Attacker is assumed to know the actual password frequency distribution. See Appendix A.
Source(s):
NIST SP 800-63-2 [Superseded]