Everything You Need To Know About Man in the Middle (MITM) Attacks
Introduction
If you are following the latest news about evolutions in cybersecurity, you will hear about the rise in Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks worldwide. It is one of the most common types of cyber-attack people face, leaving them vulnerable to unscrupulous individuals listening in on their communication. This form of cyber security attack finds two legitimate communicating hosts. The attacker will place themselves between them and eavesdrop on the conversation, which they usually should not be able to do. Therefore these attacks have been named as 'man-in-the-middle.' These attacks can be extremely harmful to the targets as they can leave them vulnerable to more attacks by leveraging the contents of their conversation.
Types Of MITM Attacks You Need Be Aware About
Rogue access point
When an attacker is physically close to the target and carries their wireless access point, they can out their MITM attacks by fooling targets into joining their domain. Any victim device equipped with wireless cards and with auto-connect options selected will be vulnerable to such attacks.
ARP spoofing
Address resolution protocol spoofing is done by attackers who will send falsified ARP messages over any local area network. This is done in the hopes of linking their MAC address with the victim's IP address or any legitimate server to find a victim who will need to log on to it.
DNS spoofing
Multicast DNS spoofing occurs when the victim with an mDNS enabled multicast device performs a query, and all the clients listening respond. However, that uses the same name as other clients. So, for example, if the victim is looking for a local printer to print a document, the attacker can change their name to the same and easily fool the victim if they are quicker in their response than the actual printer.
The unscrupulous individual will introduce corrupt DNS cache information to a host in this kind of attack. They do this in the hopes of fooling victims into leaking sensitive information to them while they are trying to access another host who is also using the same domain name.
Most Common MITM Attacks to Guard Yourself Up Against
Sniffing
Packet capture tools are used in this MITM attack technique to allow the unscrupulous individual to see packets that are not for them to access by using some wireless devices put in monitoring or promiscuous mode.
Packet Injection
The attacker uses the device's monitoring mode to effectively place malicious packets into the valid data communications stream, hoping they will blend in. This technique first involves sniffing to determine the optimum time to inject the packets.
Session Hijacking
Web applications use a user login mechanism that creates a temporary session token so that users do not have to type a password every time they go to a new page. Unfortunately, this provides an opportunity for attackers to find out sensitive tracking and identify the session token generated for a particular user and then hijack this session to make requests posing as the victim.
SSL Stripping
Most people choose HTTPS to safeguard themselves against attacks; however, attackers often use SSL stripping to intercept packets and change their HTTPS-based addresses to go on their HTTP equivalent endpoint, allowing the attackers to retrieve sensitive information the victim requests from an unencrypted server.
How can you detect a MITM Attack?
If you are not actively looking for MITM attacks, it's challenging for you to find out if you have been a victim. One of the most effective ways to detect is by checking for proper page authentication and adopting tamper detection methods to safeguard yourself. It is time you become proactive about your browsing practices and learn about different ways to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of a MITM attack.
Most Helpful Practices you can Adopt as Protection against MITM Attacks
Strong WEP or WPA Encryption on Access Points
A robust encryption mechanism on a wireless access point is a good way of keeping the attackers from joining your network.
Using Strong Router Login Credentials
Your default router login should be changed immediately, along with your Wi-Fi password. If the attacker figures out your router login credentials, they can alter your DNS servers and even infect your router with unscrupulous software.
Purchasing VPN Services
VPNs help create a secure environment for users over the local network area. VPNs use key-based encryption to create a subnet for secure communication, which does not let the attacker decipher the traffic even if they get on the shared network.
HTTPS over HTTP
HTTPS prevents an attacker from accessing any data they are sniffing for, and you can use browser plug-ins that will always ensure that you are using HTTPS on request.
Preferably using Public Key Pair Based Authentication
Public key pair-based authentication uses various less of a stack, making sure you are communicating with only the things you want to and not unscrupulous individuals who might be involved in spoofing.
Conclusion
Increase your knowledge base about MITM attacks and keep yourself safe. Learning about the techniques of the different detection processes and the best practices you can adopt to prevent yourself from MITM attacks is the only way to keep you safe. Implement the different kinds of prevention practices in your life to be on top of your cybersecurity measures without any worries.