An attacker puts a computer on your network into "promiscuous mode", listening to every bit of traffic that goes by on the network and captures all the data. Normally a computer's network connection ignores traffic that is not addressed to it, but when sniffing the computer will pick up everything. This is an easy way to pick up clear text passwords. e-mail programs frequently use clear text passwords. Many users use the same password for everything. This allows an attacker to crawl deeper into your network. There are freely available tools on the Internet that anyone can download and use.
Attack that collects information from network messages by making copies of their contents. Password sniffing is the most widely publicized example.
Using a promiscuous network adapter, router or server to capture packets being transmitted across a network.
Passive interception and reading network traffic.
The process of reading the packets that are being transmitted on a network.
The art of intercepting network traffic for the purpose of inspecting data packets without authorization.
This term refers to the monitoring of data during a network transmission.
is the term used to describe the use of a sniffer program to monitor data traffic to a network or server, in order to gain access information.