In this article you will learn what is MITM ( man in the middle attack ) and how to keep yourself away from this type of attacks. You will also get to know that why we should not use the public Wifi.
so,lets start..
What is Man in the middle attack ?
A MITM is a type of cyberattack where a hacker or an intruder inserts himself as into a conversation or data transferring between two parties that is client and a server.
Either to eavesdrop or to impersonate one of the parties, making it appear as if a normal exchange of information is underway.
Now, after establishing himself(Hacker) in between the connection, he can inject false information.
Lets see an example, through you can understand it properly.
Suppose, if you are sending a coourier to your friend via speed-post , but at the post office if a worker opens the couirer and exchange it with another item or even he can additionally insert any undesire items inside the courier package that will be delivered to yuor friend.
Like that, a hacker can perform the MITM on your device without letting you know!
Man in the middle attack is further divided into some categories that are as follows :
1. IP spoofing :
IP spoofing is the creation of Internet Protocol (IP) packets with a flase source IP address, for the purpose of impresonating another computing system. IP spoofing is a technique often used by hackers to launch DDOs attacks and man in the middle attacks against targeted man in the middle attacks against targeted devices.
2. DNS spoofing :
DNS spoofing is an attack in which altered DNS records are used to redirect online traffic to a fradulent website that resembles its intended destination.
3. HTTPS spoofing :
HTTP : Hyper text transfer protocol
HTTPS : Hyper text transfer protocol (secure)
HTTPS website can't be spoofed. but that doesn't mean hackers can't create website whose domains look very similar to that of the targeted website. HTTPS spoofing, also known as homograh attacks, replace characters in the targeted site's domain with other non-ASCII characters that are very similar in appearance. The attack exploits a feature called Punycode, a standerd that enables the registarion of hostnames that contains non-ASCII characters.
4. SSL hijacking :
SSL hijacking or SSL stripping is an atack used to circumvent the secrity enforced by SSL certificaates on HTTPS enabled websites. In other words, SSL spoofing is a technique that downgrades your connection from secure HTTPS to insecure HTTP and exposes you to eavesdropping and data manipulation.
5. Wifi eavesdropping :
Wifi eavesdropping is one of the most common methods hackers use to compromise your private data while you are connected to a public Wifi hotspot. If you use a pulic wifi to do that , you can easily get hacked. Cyber criminals thrive on the fact that people connect to public Wifi without or taking the necessary precautions.
6. E-mail hijacking :
Email hijavking a common menace uses some of the technique like email spoofing, social engineering tools, or inserting viruses in a user computer. In this process an email is sent by a spammer from a known domain misguiding the receiver to open the mail, as it is from a known sources. These mails usually have suspicious links, doubtful content, requests to transfer money. etc.
7. Stealing browser cookies :
An HTTP browser cookie is a small piece of data sent from a website and stired on the user's computer by the user's web browser while the user is browsing. Coolies were designed to be reliable mechanism for websites to remember stateful information or to record the user's browsing activity. Theese cookies are encrypted so that it is harder for people in the middle that is between the client and the server to steal sensitive data. But advanced hackers can extract the encrypted data and know all your private informations.
How to prevent yourself from MITM Attacks ?
1. Never connect to public wifi routers directy. If possible then install and use VPN (Virtual private network) because a VPN encrypt your internet connection on public hotspot to protect the private data you send and recieve while using public wifi like passwords and credit card informations
2. Secure your home wifi setup and change the passwords regularly.
3. Dont click on malicious links or unknown E-mails links.
4. Don't Download pirated Contents from untrusted sites.
5. Make sure the website you visit, contain HTTPS connection.
Thank you for reading ; )
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