Disgruntled Employee's Man-in-the-Middle Attack

A disgruntled employee executes a man-in-the-middle attack on the company network.

Layer 2 traffic destined for the gateway is redirected to the employee's computer.

This type of attack is an example of:

A.

ARP cache poisoning

B.

IP spoofing

C.

amplified DNS attack

D.

evil twin.

A.

The correct answer is A. ARP cache poisoning.

ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is a protocol used to map a network address (such as an IP address) to a physical address (such as a MAC address). ARP cache poisoning (also known as ARP spoofing) is a type of attack where an attacker sends falsified ARP messages to the network in order to associate the attacker's MAC address with the IP address of the victim's device.

In this scenario, the disgruntled employee has executed a man-in-the-middle attack, which means that they are intercepting and potentially modifying communication between two parties (in this case, the devices and the gateway). By redirecting Layer 2 traffic (which includes MAC addresses) destined for the gateway to their own computer, the attacker is essentially hijacking the communication between the devices and the gateway. This can allow the attacker to eavesdrop on the communication or even modify the traffic, potentially leading to data theft, data manipulation, or other malicious actions.

Overall, ARP cache poisoning is a common tactic used in man-in-the-middle attacks, and it can have serious security implications if not addressed. To prevent ARP cache poisoning, organizations can use various security measures such as static ARP table entries, ARP spoofing detection tools, or network segmentation.