Some of the most devastating cyberattacks do not rely on brute force and instead succeed through stealth. These quiet intrusions often become unnoticed until much later after the attacker disappears. The most insidious is the man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, where criminals exploit weaknesses in their communication protocols to quietly position themselves between two unsuspecting parties.
Fortunately, protecting communication from MITM attacks does not require complex metrics. By taking a few simple steps, your security team can go a long way in securing your data and keeping silent attackers at bay.
Know your enemies
In a MITM attack, a malicious actor intercepts communication between two parties (such as users or web apps) to steal sensitive information. By secretly placing yourself between the ends of the conversation, MITM attackers can capture data such as credit card numbers, login credentials, account details, and more. This stolen information often promotes further crimes, such as fraudulent purchases, financial account acquisitions, and identity theft.
The widespread use of MITM attacks speaks to its effectiveness. Several well-known incidents have made headlines and show how damaging these attacks can. Notable examples include the Equifax data breaches, the Lenovo Superfish scandal, and the Diginotar compromise. All of these highlight what a catastrophic MITM attack will look like when security controls fail.
General MITM threat vectors
MITM attacks are particularly common in environments with unsecured Wi-Fi and a large number of potential casualties (such as coffee shops, hotels, airports). Cybercriminals misuses misconfigured or unsecured networks, or deploys Rogue hardware that mimics a legitimate access point. When Rogue Access Point is activated, an attacker is very similar to a network where he can trust Wi-Fi names (i.e., service set identifiers or SSIDs). Unsuspecting users will join without realizing the malicious connection when the device automatically connects to a familiar or strong signature network.
The role of spoofing in MITM attacks
Spoofing allows an attacker to disguise himself as a trusted entity within his environment. This deception allows you to intercept, monitor, or manipulate data being exchanged without doubt.
MDNS and DNS Spoofing
MDNS and DNS spoofing are common tactics that trick devices that trust malicious sources. Attackers exploit MDN on their local network by replying to name requests using fake addresses, but DNS spoofing will inject incorrect data and redirect users to harmful websites that can steal sensitive information.
ARP spoofing
Hackers can intercept local network traffic by leveraging Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). An attacker targets another device to himself by replying to a device’s request for its own MAC address that redirects its own device. This can capture and analyze private communications, steal sensitive information such as session tokens, and gain unauthorized access to your account.
Protect against MITM attacks
Despite its complexity, MITM attacks can be effectively thwarted with the following set of best practices:
Encrypt everything
Force HTTPS and TLS across all web traffic to prevent data from interception or tampering. Use HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to ensure that your browser connects only to secure channels and apply the secure cookie flag to protect sensitive information from exposure to unencrypted connections. For mobile and desktop apps, implement certificate pinning to bind apps to specific server certificates. This makes it difficult for an attacker to intercept communications by impersonating a trusted service.
Protect your network
Avoid public Wi-Fi when possible or use a trusted VPN to encrypt traffic and protect against eavesdroppers. Within a network, segmentation of internal systems and separation of untrusted zones can help contain compromises and limit attacker lateral movement. Additionally, while deploying DNSSEC will validate encrypted DNS responses, DNS over DNS over HTTPS (DOH) (DOT) makes it difficult for an attacker to tamper or spoof the domain resolution by encrypting DNS queries.
Authentication and verification
Implement mutual TLS to require both clients and servers to authenticate with each other before blocking connections, spoofing and intercepts. Powering strong multifactor authentication (MFA) on critical services adds another layer of protection, making it difficult for attackers to take advantage of the stolen credentials. Periodically auditing and rotating TLS certificates and encryption keys is also essential to closing the security gaps caused by compromised or outdated encryption materials.
Endpoints and Traffic Monitoring
To mitigate MITM attacks, security teams must implement a layered defense strategy. Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS) can be configured to flag anomalous SSL/TLS handshake patterns. External Attack Surface Management (EASM) tools are important for revealing vulnerabilities and revealing expiration or misunderstood certificates for unknown or unmanaged Internet assets. Certificate mismatches or unexpected continuing monitoring of certificate authorities can expose spoofed services and fraudulent intermediaries. Additionally, advanced endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions detect common MITM tactics such as ARP spoofing and unauthorized proxy use, allowing faster investigation and repair.
Educate users
It helps to educate users to be aware of invalid certificate warnings. At the same time, developers must follow secure coding practices that do not disable certificate validation, as skipping these checks creates a critical vulnerability. Incorporating both Static Application Security Test (SAST) and Dynamic Application Security Test (DAST) into the development cycle detects issues such as encryption and improper certificate handling and fixes them early.
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