The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) associates hardware addresses with IP addr

Question

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) associates hardware addresses with IP addresses. This association may change over time. Each node in the network maintains an ARP cache mapping corresponding IP and hardware addresses. A node trying to find the hardware address for an IP address that is not in its cache, broadcasts an ARP request that also contains its own IP and hardware addresses. The node with the requested IP address replies with its hardware address. What are the possible vulnerabilities for spoofing in the ARP protocol? What defences can be used against ARP spoofing?

Explanation / Answer

Answer:-

ARP is the communication protocol which is used to discover the MAC address or the physical address which is linked to the network address or IP address.

This association may change over time. Each node in the network maintains an ARP cache mapping corresponding IPand hardware addresses which may change over time.

A node whichtries to find the hardware address for an IP address that is not in its cache,broadcasts an ARP request that also contains its own IPand hardware addresses for finding the physical address.

Here ARP spoofing is a concern in ARP requests where in attacker sends a spoofed or a fake ARP message request to associate the attacker physical address to the IP address. This is done by the attacker to divert any traffic meant for that IP address to the attacker and not to the genuine host.

Thus the possible vulnerabilities for spoofing in the ARP protocol are that an attacker can intercept the network traffic and also modify or stop the traffic.

DOS Denial of service, Man in the middle attack and hijacking can also beperformed.

The defenses can be used against ARP spoofing are:-

Static ARP entries - which mean that we have to use only read only entries for the critical services in the ARP cache of the host.

Thus the static mapping has to be done for each machine.

ARP spoofing detection and prevention software - This software detect and prevent the spoofing of the ARP attacks and relies oncertifications and cross checking.

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