Re: sniffing plaintext protocols

[Dotzero <dotzero () gmail com>]

On 7/31/06, Shreyas Zare <shreyasonline () yahoo com> wrote:
> Its possible if and only if you lie on the same
> network. The network may be private/internet. You must
> be connected to the same pipe.

Simply not a true statement. I'll give one example as an illustration.

User A at IP address 172.16.1.1 connects to a remote host foo.com
using telnet by entering "telnet foo.com" from a command prompt which
would normally connect to 192.168.1.1 (using RFC 1918 addresses rather
than real ones).

Evil person B has access to a router that is in the path between user
A and the telnet server for foo.com. Evil person B sets up a span port
and sniffs traffic to his hearts content....including the telnet
session. Note that evil person B is not on the same network segment as
either of the endpoints. Obviously, this is a simplified and contrived
example that ignores asymetric routing, etc.

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