Editing ARP spoofing (section)

{{short description|Cyberattack which associates the attacker's MAC address with the IP address of another host}}

[[Image:ARP Spoofing.svg|right|thumb|300px|A successful ARP spoofing (poisoning) attack allows an attacker to alter [[routing]] on a network, effectively allowing for a man-in-the-middle attack.]]

In [[computer network]]ing, '''ARP spoofing''' (also '''ARP cache poisoning''' or '''ARP poison routing''') is a technique by which an attacker sends ([[Spoofing attack|spoofed]]) [[Address Resolution Protocol]] (ARP) messages onto a [[local area network]]. Generally, the aim is to associate the attacker's [[MAC address]] with the [[IP address]] of another [[Host (network)|host]], such as the [[default gateway]], causing any traffic meant for that IP address to be sent to the attacker instead.

ARP spoofing may allow an attacker to intercept [[data frame]]s on a network, modify the traffic, or stop all traffic. Often the attack is used as an opening for other attacks, such as [[denial of service]], [[Man-in-the-middle attack|man in the middle]], or [[session hijacking]] attacks.<ref name="Ramachandran-2005-p239">{{cite book|author=Ramachandran, Vivek|author2=Nandi, Sukumar|name-list-style=amp|chapter=Detecting ARP Spoofing: An Active Technique|editor=Jajodia, Suchil|editor2=Mazumdar, Chandan|title=Information systems security: first international conference, ICISS 2005, Kolkata, India, December 19–21, 2005 : proceedings|publisher=Birkhauser|year=2005|isbn=978-3-540-30706-8|page=239|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4LmERFxBzSUC&pg=PA239}}</ref>

The attack can only be used on networks that use ARP, and requires that the attacker has direct access to the local [[network segment]] to be attacked.<ref name="Lockhart-2007-p184">{{cite book|author=Lockhart, Andrew|title=Network security hacks|publisher=O'Reilly|year=2007|isbn=978-0-596-52763-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/networksecurityh02edunse/page/184 184]|url=https://archive.org/details/networksecurityh02edunse|url-access=registration}}</ref>