Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks are a type of cyberattack in which a criminal secretly intercepts and potentially alters data or communications between two parties—such as a user and a web application, or a client and a server—without either party knowing. The attacker positions themselves between the victim and their intended destination, allowing them to eavesdrop on, capture, or manipulate the communication.
How a man-in-the-middle attack works
Positioning: Attackers use techniques like ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) spoofing or DNS (Domain Name Server) spoofing to impersonate a trusted part of the network—usually the router or server—so that traffic is redirected through their device.
Interception: All data that the victim sends or receives flows through the attacker's system, including browsing activity, login credentials, financial transactions, and sensitive communications.
Decryption and Exploitation: Attackers use SSL stripping to downgrade connections from HTTPS to HTTP, install fake certificates to break encryption, and use malware to read encrypted traffic locally.
Staying Hidden: To maintain the attack and avoid detection, the attacker forwards requests and responses between the victim and the real destination, making the communication appear normal to both parties.
Common MITM attack techniques include
Wi-Fi eavesdropping on unsecured public networks
ARP poisoning to intercept local network traffic
DNS spoofing to redirect users to malicious websites
SSL stripping to downgrade encrypted connections
HTTPS spoofing using visually similar domain names
Protection against MITM attacks includes using HTTPS with valid certificates, avoiding unsecured public Wi-Fi, employing VPNs, implementing certificate pinning, and using multi-factor authentication. Pangratis helps detect email-based MITM precursors where attackers attempt to harvest credentials for subsequent network infiltration.