A Man in the Middle (MITM) attack happens when an attacker got in between a user and a website. There are different ways to attack in this way. For instance, a fake banking website could be used to steal login information for a financial account.

Attackers can use a wide range of security threats to take advantage of applications that aren’t safe. Some of these attacks can be made automatically by software, while others require threat actors to do more work. In this tutorial, we’ll explain a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack and how to protect yourself from it.

What is Man in the Middle Attack?

A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack is when someone gets in the middle of a conversation between a user and an application, either to listen in or to pretend to be one of the parties, so it looks like a regular exchange of information is happening. The goal of an attack is to steal personal information, like login credentials, account information, and credit card numbers.

Users of financial applications, SaaS businesses, e-commerce sites, and other websites that require logging in are usually the targets.

Types of MITM Attack:

A MITM attack is eavesdropping, in which a third party or an enemy sneaks into a conversation between two people to gather or change information. MITM attacks can affect any communication, even between devices and connected objects (IoT).

DNS spoofing:

Domain Name Server Spoofing, or DNS spoofing, is a way to trick a user into going to a fake website instead of the real one they want.

If you’re a victim of DNS spoofing, you might think you’re on a safe, trusted website when talking to a fraudster. The bad guy wants to send traffic away from the site or get users’ login information.

IP spoofing:

Every device that can connect to the internet has an internet protocol (IP) address, like your house’s street address. Spoofing an IP address can make a hacker think you’re talking to a website or person you’re not. This could give the hacker access to the information you wouldn’t usually give out.

ARP spoofing:

An attacker uses ARP spoofing, ARP cache poisoning, or ARP poison routing in computer networking to send fake Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) messages to a local area network. In general, the goal is to link the attacker’s MAC address to the IP address of another host, like the default gateway, so that any traffic is meant for that Instead, the attacker receives the victim’s IP address.

With ARP spoofing, an attacker might be able to steal data frames on a network, change the traffic, or stop all of the traffic. Often, the attack is used to launch other attacks, like denial of service, a man in the middle, or session hijacking.

MITM Decryption

Any intercepted two-way SSL traffic must be decrypted without letting the user or application know. There are multiple ways to do this:

SSL stripping

SSL stripping downgrades an HTTPS connection to HTTP by intercepting the TLS authentication sent from the application to the user. The attacker sends an unencrypted version of the application’s website to the user while keeping the user’s secure session with the application open. Meanwhile, the attacker can see the whole session of the user.

HTTPS spoofing

HTTPS spoofing sends a fake certificate to the victim’s browser after the first connection request to a secure site. It keeps a digital thumbprint of the accessed app, which the browser checks against a list of trusted sites. The attacker will then be able to see any data entered by the victim before it is sent to the application.

Email hijacking

Sometimes, cybercriminals target email accounts belonging to banks and other financial organizations. After gaining access, they can see transactions between the institution and its clients.

The attackers may then impersonate the bank’s email address and give consumers instructions. This persuades the consumer to follow the attackers’ directions instead of the bank’s. Consequently, an uninformed consumer may unknowingly transfer funds to the attackers.

Wi-Fi eavesdropping

Cybercriminals can set up Wi-Fi networks with names that sound like they belong to a business nearby. Once a user connects to the fraudster’s Wi-Fi, the attacker will be able to watch the user’s online activity and steal login credentials, payment card information, and more. This is just one of many things that could go wrong when you use public Wi-Fi. Here, you can find out more about these kinds of risks.

Cookie stealing

To understand the risk of stolen browser cookies, you need to know what they are. A browser cookie is a small piece of information that a website stores on your computer.

For example, an online store might save your personal information and the items you’ve put in your shopping cart on a cookie so that you don’t have to enter them again when you return.

Wey to Man in Tha Middle Attack:

During a MITM attack, legitimate parties, such as Alice and Bob, believe they are talking with one another. In actuality, however, their conversations are intercepted by Eve, the eavesdropper, who stands between them and poses as Alice to Bob and Bob to Alice.

Eve may alter the material before passing it on from Alice to Bob, or she might record their conversations for future reference. Standard man-in-the-middle attack methods include the following:

Rogue Access Point

A device functioning on the network without the consent of an administrator is referred to as a rogue access point. This poses a potential risk to the network’s security. They are designed to fool computers that automatically connect to Wi-Fi by appearing as authentic public networks to deceive them into joining. These malicious networks often steal essential information and monitor traffic simultaneously.

This rogue access point might be used by the attacker as a public Wi-Fi connection at a coffee shop, allowing them to manage and capture any communications that flow over that network.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) spoofing

DHCP is responsible for the dynamic assignment of IP addresses. In the attack technique known as DHCP spoofing, the attacker’s computer is made to seem to be a DHCP server, and it then transmits fraudulent DHCP acknowledgments to any connected nodes. 

An attacker may carry out a man-in-the-middle attack by using fraudulent DHCP queries that include their IP address as the default gateway address or DNS server.

MTIM Tools Android:

Everyone knows that Android is great for phones. It works quickly, is easy to use, and has many excellent features. Android isn’t very good at keeping track of apps and services, which is the problem. Users will likely have problems using an app or service more than once.

The system knows what it’s doing and won’t let apps and services come back from being stopped or suspended. So, man-in-the-middle attack tools for Android are essential to know.

GoodPCT

GoodPCT is a password manager that is easy to use and will keep your credentials safe. The New Clothes of the Emperor: This free and open-source program will make it easy to keep track of your passwords.

BUTTERCUP

This concept app from a competitor, Weebly, runs in the background to ensure it works. Customers of Weebly can use this feature to run full-fledged apps for customer service and repairs. Also, its support team makes it easier for customers to talk to them from one place.

When an app or service is running in the background, other apps and services are also running. This can be a problem because you’ll have to keep telling yourself that you want to be online or on the move. So how do you make sure this doesn’t keep happening to you?

You need to limit your apps so they can’t run in the background. It would help if you made sure you didn’t put too many apps on the home screen at once. You could also limit the times you need to turn off the phone to save power.

Lastly, you need to ensure that you don’t let apps do anything other than what they’re supposed to do. This is one of the best tools for Android to use a “man in the middle” attack.

HETTY

Google’s high-tech team made a platform called TestFlight that lets companies launch their products from their website. Users can use TestFlight to create and fill out a user manual, and then Google will automatically Flight Test those pages.

 It is the usual way for apps to be reviewed and approved. If Google Flight Tests an app, it is safe to use. It also means that the Play Store will let you sell it. This is, without a doubt, one of the best tools for Android to use a “man in the middle” attack.

More MITM Tools

Many tools are used during MITM attacks; Some are very important. There are some Most Important tools used in Man in a middle attack:

• BURPSUITE
• ETTERCAP
• FaceNiff
• Fing Network Scanner
• PY
• MITMPROXY

How do we prevent man-in-the-middle attacks?

Since cybercriminals have easy access to tools they can use for man-in-the-middle attacks, it makes sense to take steps to protect your devices, data, and connections. Here are some of them.

• Make sure your Wi-Fi network at home is safe. Please change the default usernames and passwords on your home router and any other connected devices to strong, unique passwords.
• Since most MITB attacks involve malware, you should protect your computer with a complete internet security suite like Norton Security. Always update the security software.
• Make sure that “HTTPS” (with an S) is always in the URL bar of the websites you visit.
• Be wary of emails that might be phishing and ask you to change your password or any other login information. Instead of clicking on the link in the email, type the website’s address into your browser.
• If you can help it, don’t connect directly to public Wi-Fi routers. A VPN encrypts your internet connection on public hotspots to protect sensitive information, like passwords and credit card numbers, that you send and receive while using public Wi-Fi.

In a connected world that changes quickly, knowing what kinds of threats could put your personal information at risk online is essential. Keep up with the news and ensure your devices have the proper security.

Recommended for You: Brute force & Dictionary Attack: Is this same (Live Example)

FAQs About MITM Attack:

Q.1. Does VPN stop “man-in-the-middle” attacks?

It depends. Many places where a MiTM attack could happen will be blocked by using a VPN, but not all of them. Specifically, it will protect the traffic between your device and the VPN gateway. This will stop your ISP (or most governments) from making a MiTM attack on you.

Q.2. Is MITM (Man in the Middle attack) possible in HTTPS?

Yes, MITM attacks can happen over HTTPS. MITM attacks on SSL protocols are best made with Fiddler. You only need to install the fiddler certificate on the victim’s side and send the traffic to your system where the Fiddler is running.

Q.3. How do you test for mitmproxy?

Please ensure everything works; by going to https://mitmproxy.org, you can check that all TLS-encrypted web traffic is working as it should. It should show up as a new flow, which you can look at.

Conclusion:

MiTM attacks are a type of hacking that is hard to spot because they don’t happen directly on the target system, and once the hacker is in the middle of the connection, they don’t do anything that looks suspicious. But there are ways to stop the most common MiTM variants from happening.

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