In drive-by pharming, the design of the attack is often based on the factory setting of most routers that are sold to consumers. Many of these routers come with factory default passwords to control access. Hackers can exploit this security hole and introduce a malicious JavaScript (JS) code that redirects URLs and leads users to perilous websites. This type of attack is common to low-end routers and products of more sophisticated hardware providers, like Cisco.

In drive-by pharming, the term pharming is used, in contrast to phishing - another common type of hacking. Pharming refers to the use of URL takeovers to access private data.

Experts have noted that drive-by pharming may be used to simultaneously affect many local networks. In other words, it is a less labor-intensive form of hacking than others.