Recall that on an Ethernet network local IP addresses are associated with hosts’ network adapter MAC addresses, and that hosts send out ARP requests to find out the MAC address that any arbitrary local IP address has been assigned to. The easiest and most effective way to achieve a MITM attack is though an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing attack. These attacks involve a hacker diverting packets which are meant to flow between a victim’s computer and another machine – usually an Internet gateway – so that they flow through the attacker’s computer, where they can be inspected and changed before being passed on.
Man in the middle (MITM) attacks can be devastatingly effective, providing hackers with all kinds of confidential information and, just as seriously, giving them the opportunity to feed false information to victims.
