Account Takeover and Credential Stuffing: The 2026 Threat Landscape
MojoAuth Blog, Tuesday, July 14th, 2026
Credential stuffing exploits password reuse to hijack accounts, and eliminating reusable passwords via passkeys is the most effective defense.
Credential stuffing accounts for roughly one in five login attempts on a typical service according to Verizon's 2025 DBIR.
The attack works because users reuse passwords widely, with only 49% of typical passwords being distinct.
Account takeover breaches are costly and hard to detect since attackers use legitimate credentials, taking around 292 days to identify and contain. Layered defenses such as phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication, breached-password detection, and bot detection reduce risk.
However, deploying phishing-resistant passkeys that eliminate shared secrets entirely is the most fundamental fix for credential-based account takeover.