Which term describes an attack where an adversary intercepts communications between two systems to gain access or falsify/edit the communications?

Which term describes an attack where an adversary intercepts communications between two systems to gain access or falsify/edit the communications?

• A. Man-in-the-Middle (MitM)
• B. Masquerading
• C. MAC Address
• D. Multicast

Answer: (A)

Interception and possible alteration of traffic between two systems describes a Man-in-the-Middle attack. In this scenario, the attacker positions themselves along the communication path so that messages pass through them, allowing on-the-fly eavesdropping, tampering with the data, or impersonating one side to both parties. This directly accounts for gaining access or falsifying/editing the communications. Masquerading involves pretending to be someone or something else, but it doesn’t inherently involve intercepting and modifying an ongoing exchange. A MAC address is simply a hardware identifier on a network interface, not an attack type. Multicast is a method of delivering messages to multiple recipients, not an attacker technique.

Interception and possible alteration of traffic between two systems describes a Man-in-the-Middle attack. In this scenario, the attacker positions themselves along the communication path so that messages pass through them, allowing on-the-fly eavesdropping, tampering with the data, or impersonating one side to both parties. This directly accounts for gaining access or falsifying/editing the communications. Masquerading involves pretending to be someone or something else, but it doesn’t inherently involve intercepting and modifying an ongoing exchange. A MAC address is simply a hardware identifier on a network interface, not an attack type. Multicast is a method of delivering messages to multiple recipients, not an attacker technique.