COMMON ATTACK PATTERN ENUMERATION AND CLASSIFICATIONLive MITRE record

CAPEC-157

Sniffing Attacks

In this attack pattern, the adversary intercepts information transmitted between two third parties. The adversary must be able to observe, read, and/or hear the communication traffic, but not necessarily block the communication or change its content. Any transmission medium can theoretically be sniffed if the adversary can examine the contents between the sender and recipient. Sniffing Attacks are similar to Adversary-In-The-Middle attacks ( CAPEC-94 ), but are entirely passive. AiTM attacks are predominantly active and often alter the content of the communications themselves.

Abstraction

Standard

Typical severity

Medium

Likelihood of attack

Medium

Understand the attack

What is this attack pattern?

In this attack pattern, the adversary intercepts information transmitted between two third parties. The adversary must be able to observe, read, and/or hear the communication traffic, but not necessarily block the communication or change its content. Any transmission medium can theoretically be sniffed if the adversary can examine the contents between the sender and recipient. Sniffing Attacks are similar to Adversary-In-The-Middle attacks ( CAPEC-94 ), but are entirely passive. AiTM attacks are predominantly active and often alter the content of the communications themselves.

Execution flow

How does the attack proceed, step by step?

1

Explore

Determine Communication Mechanism

The adversary determines the nature and mechanism of communication between two components, looking for opportunities to exploit.

Techniques used

  • Look for application documentation that might describe a communication mechanism used by a target.
2

Experiment

Position In Between Targets

The adversary positions themselves somewhere in the middle of the two components. If the communication is encrypted, the adversary will need to act as a proxy and route traffic between the components, exploiting a flaw in the encryption mechanism. Otherwise, the adversary can just observe the communication at either end.

Techniques used

  • Use Wireshark or some other packet capturing tool to capture traffic on a network.
  • Install spyware on a client that will intercept outgoing packets and route them to their destination as well as route incoming packets back to the client.
  • Exploit a weakness in an encrypted communication mechanism to gain access to traffic. Look for outdated mechanisms such as SSL.
3

Exploit

Listen to Communication

The adversary observes communication, but does not alter or block it. The adversary gains access to sensitive information and can potentially utilize this information in a malicious way.

Requirements

What does the attack require?

Prerequisites

  • The target data stream must be transmitted on a medium to which the adversary has access.

Skills required

Not stated in the MITRE record.

Resources required

  • The adversary must be able to intercept the transmissions containing the data of interest. Depending on the medium of transmission and the path the data takes between the sender and recipient, the adversary may require special equipment and/or require that this equipment be placed in specific locations (e.g., a network sniffing tool)

Impact

What does a successful attack lead to?

Read Data

Affected scopes: Confidentiality

Defence

How is it prevented and mitigated?

1
Encrypt sensitive information when transmitted on insecure mediums to prevent interception.