The Cloudflare Blog: Password reuse is rampant: nearly half of observed user logins are compromised

Mar 17, 2025

—

Source URL: https://blog.cloudflare.com/password-reuse-rampant-half-user-logins-compromised/
Source: The Cloudflare Blog
Title: Password reuse is rampant: nearly half of observed user logins are compromised

Feedly Summary: Nearly half of observed login attempts across websites protected by Cloudflare involved leaked credentials. The pervasive issue of password reuse is enabling automated bot attacks on a massive scale.

AI Summary and Description: Yes

Summary: This text addresses the critical issue of password reuse and its significant impact on online security, especially in the context of content management systems, such as WordPress. It highlights alarming statistics regarding compromised passwords in successful logins and the role of bots in credential stuffing attacks, emphasizing the need for robust security measures like multi-factor authentication and leaked credentials detection.

Detailed Description:
The text explores the security risks associated with password reuse, particularly in online environments where users frequently log in to access various services. The following points detail its significance:

– **Human Behavior and Authentication Risks**:
– Password reuse remains a prevalent issue; about 41% of successful logins involve compromised credentials.
– Many users do not change their passwords after data breaches, leading to heightened vulnerability.

– **Statistics on Leaked Credentials**:
– Analysis by Cloudflare indicates that 52% of all authentication requests are from users attempting to utilize leaked passwords, representing a large portion of daily login traffic.
– Bots are significant contributors to this issue, with 95% of login attempts involving leaked passwords originating from automated systems.

– **Impact on Content Management Systems (CMS)**:
– WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are noted targets for attackers due to their popularity and the effectiveness of credential stuffing attacks.
– A staggering 76% of leaked password login attempts on WordPress sites are successful, indicating the ease of exploiting weak authentication measures.

– **Bot-driven Attacks**:
– The text highlights the methods bots use to conduct credential stuffing attacks, including simulating human behavior to evade detection.
– The mention of the low denial rate (only 5%) for unauthorized access attempts suggests inadequate security controls, which could be improved by implementing multi-factor authentication and rate-limiting.

– **Recommendations for Security Improvement**:
– Users are encouraged to adopt unique, strong passwords and enable multi-factor authentication.
– Website owners should implement tools like leaked credentials detection and robust password policies to combat credential stuffing and enhance overall system security.

By highlighting the challenges posed by credential reuse and automated attacks, this analysis underscores the critical need for users and organizations to fortify their security practices and stay ahead of evolving threats.

1 2 4 5 7 a access Act after AI analysis and ARM art as attack attackers attacks authentication authentication measures authentication risks Auto automated attacks Automated Systems Behavior bot attacks bots breach breaches by C challenges CIA Cloud Cloudflare compromised compromised credentials content content management content management systems Context control controls core credential credential stuffing credential stuffing attacks credentials critical cross D data data breach Data breaches de denial detection driven Driven Attacks e effective effectiveness end environment EU evolving threats exp exploit fact factor authentication for g H high Highlight HR http HTTPS human in ite J k l large leaked passwords led Li limiting low man management Management System mass ML multi multi-factor authentication N no o of on online security only opt organization organizations out over password policies password reuse passwords point policies pre R rag rate RCE RDP recommendations red Risk risks Ro robust security Role RoT s Scale sec security security controls security improvement security measure security measures security practices security risk security risks service services Sig Sim SoC source SSE strong passwords system system security systems T text the threat threats to tool tools Tor TP traffic unauthorized access up US use user Users uth V val vulnerability web website Wi WordPress x