Man-on-the-side attack
A man-on-the-side attack is an active attack in the area of network security , in which an attacker answers a victim's request faster than the requested service. In contrast to a man-in-the-middle attack , the attacker does not need complete control over the communication between the two attacked systems. It is enough if he can read the network traffic like a normal participant and feed new messages into the network. The attacker only needs low latency so that his response to a victim's request arrives before the actual response.
The attacker can use his response packet to place malware on the victim's computer. The attack is difficult to carry out because the attacker has to occupy a privileged position in the network, for example in the backbone , in order to get the timing advantage they need.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ryan Gallagher and Glenn Greenwald: How the NSA Plans to Infect 'Millions' of Computers with Malware. (No longer available online.) The Intercept , March 12, 2014, archived from the original on August 18, 2014 ; accessed on April 13, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Bruce Schneier: Attacking Tor: how the NSA targets users' online anonymity. The Guardian , October 4, 2013, accessed April 13, 2014 .
