Credential Stuffing Risk Calculator
Size a credential stuffing campaign: how many stolen pairs authenticate, how many MFA stops, and the loss that remains.
Inputs
Industry telemetry puts credential stuffing success at 0.1–2 % depending on the freshness of the list.
Accounts Taken Over
2,030accounts
Pairs That Authenticate
5,000logins
Stopped by MFA
2,970logins
Takeover Rate per Pair Replayed
0.2030%
Expected Loss
$406,000
Step by step
Values used
Credential pairs replayed = 1,000,000 pairs; Pairs that authenticate = 0.5000 %; Accounts with MFA enabled = 60 %; Takeovers MFA blocks when present = 99 %; Cost per taken-over account = 200 $
Credential Stuffing Risk
successful logins = pairs replayed × success rate; takeovers = successful logins × (1 − MFA coverage × MFA block rate).
Accounts Taken Over
= 2,030 accounts
Pairs That Authenticate
= 5,000 logins
Stopped by MFA
= 2,970 logins
Takeover Rate per Pair Replayed
= 0.2030
Expected Loss
= 406,000
How it works
Credential stuffing is a volume business: the per-pair success rate is tiny, but bots replay millions of pairs, so a 0.5 % rate on a million-pair list is 5000 valid logins. MFA is the only control in the chain that acts after a correct password, so takeovers scale with the share of accounts that still lack it. Stuffing is the most common cause of account takeover on consumer platforms, and the arithmetic shows the residual risk is set almost entirely by your MFA enrolment gap rather than by password policy.
Formula
Credential Stuffing Risk
successful logins = pairs replayed × success rate; takeovers = successful logins × (1 − MFA coverage × MFA block rate).
- success rate
- Share of replayed pairs that authenticate, typically 0.1–2 %
- MFA coverage
- Share of accounts with a second factor enrolled
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Credential Stuffing Risk calculated?
successful logins = pairs replayed × success rate; takeovers = successful logins × (1 − MFA coverage × MFA block rate). Credential stuffing is a volume business: the per-pair success rate is tiny, but bots replay millions of pairs, so a 0.5 % rate on a million-pair list is 5000 valid logins. MFA is the only control in the chain that acts after a correct password, so takeovers scale with the share of accounts that still lack it.
Why does Credential Stuffing Risk matter?
Stuffing is the most common cause of account takeover on consumer platforms, and the arithmetic shows the residual risk is set almost entirely by your MFA enrolment gap rather than by password policy.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Credential pairs replayed, Pairs that authenticate, Accounts with MFA enabled, Takeovers MFA blocks when present, Cost per taken-over account. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
Why is the success rate so low but still dangerous?
Because the input is free and effectively unlimited. At 0.5 % an attacker needs 200 attempts per hit, which is seconds of bot time. The defence has to break the economics — rate limiting per source, bot detection, and MFA — not hope for a lower hit rate.
What stops stuffing before MFA gets involved?
Blocking passwords that appear in breach corpora at registration and reset, since a pair can only be replayed if the password is reused. Device fingerprinting and IP reputation cut the volume, and passkeys remove the replayable secret entirely.
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