Address Resolution Protocol Spoofing

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What Does Address Resolution Protocol Spoofing Mean?

Address resolution protocol (ARP) spoofing is a technique that causes the redirection of network traffic to a hacker. Spoofing may denote sniffing out LAN addresses on both wired and wireless LAN networks. The concept behind this type of spoofing is to send bogus ARP communications to Ethernet LANs and the attack may modify traffic or block it altogether.

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ARP spoofing is also known as an ARP redirect.

Techopedia Explains Address Resolution Protocol Spoofing

There are three types of ARP spoofing:

  • Man-In-The-Middle Attacks: These involve traffic modifications.
  • Denial-of-Service Attacks: These involve a fake MAC address attached to the user’s default gateway.
  • Passive Sniffing: This happens when traffic is sent to the user’s default gateway through their IP address.

There also are useful, non-malicious usages for ARP spoofing, such as hotels utilizing the technique to allow guests to access the Internet from their laptops.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.