Discovering MAC- and ARP-based attacks

There are various types of layer-2 MAC-based attacks and layer-2/3 ARP attacks that can be easily discovered by Wireshark. These attacks are usually caused by scanners (described in the next recipe) and man-in-the-middle attacks (described in the Analyzing connectivity problems with ARP recipe in Chapter 8, ARP and IP Analysis). In this recipe, we will see some typical attack patterns and their meanings.

Getting ready

When viewing too many ARP requests on a network or when seeing non-standard MAC addresses in the network, connect Wireshark with port mirror to their source and start the capture.

How to do it...

To look for ARP/MAC-based attacks, follow these steps:

  1. Connect Wireshark to any port on the network.
  2. Look for massive ARP broadcasts. Since ARP requests are broadcasts, they will be distributed in the entire layer-2 network (that is, on a single VLAN). In the following screenshot, you can see a typical ARP-scan pattern. It's important to note that this ARP scan can be an application that works this way, for example, SNMP software that discovers the network and router that uses gratuitous ARP. It is a problem only if it comes from an unidentified source.
    How to do it...
  3. There are also some suspicious MAC patterns. You can identify them when you see:
    • Two identical MAC addresses with different IP addresses. It can be two IP addresses configured on the same network adapter, which is OK, but it can also be an attack pattern in which someone has changed its MAC address to the MAC address of a server (can be performed in every adapter).
    • The case mentioned above can also indicate a man-in-the-middle attack as mentioned in the ARP poisoning and man-in-the-middle attacks section in Chapter 8, ARP and IP Analysis.

How it works...

ARP sends broadcasts to the network asking for the MAC address of a specific IP destination. Anything that is not according to this pattern should be considered malicious.

There's more...

ARP requests can also come from the SNMP software that discovers the network (auto-discovery feature), the DHCP server that sends gratuitous ARP, and so on. Whenever you see ARP scanning something, it is not necessarily a problem; the question is who sends them. You can find more information on the ARP process in Chapter 8, ARP and IP Analysis.

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