What type of attack involves intercepting communications between two parties?

A Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack involves an unauthorized party intercepting and potentially altering communications between two legitimate parties without their knowledge. This type of attack allows the attacker to eavesdrop on the communication, capture sensitive information, or even impersonate one of the parties to manipulate the exchange of data.

This attack takes advantage of vulnerabilities in unsecured communication channels, such as unencrypted networks, making it possible for the attacker to sit unnoticed between the two communicating parties. By doing so, the attacker gains access to sensitive information such as login credentials, financial data, or personal details, which can be used for identity theft or further attacks.

In contrast, phishing attacks focus on tricking individuals into revealing sensitive information by pretending to be a trustworthy entity, denial of service attacks aim to disrupt the availability of services by overwhelming them with traffic, and brute force attacks involve attempting to gain unauthorized access by systematically trying every possible password until the correct one is found. Each of these attack types operates differently and targets various weaknesses in systems and user behavior.