ARP spoofing

A successful ARP spoofing (poisoning) attack allows an attacker to alter routing on a network, effectively allowing for a man-in-the-middle attack.

In computer networking, ARP spoofing, ARP cache poisoning, or ARP poison routing, is a technique by which an attacker sends (spoofed) Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) messages onto a local area network. Generally, the aim is to associate the attacker's MAC address with the IP address of another host, such as the default gateway, causing any traffic meant for that IP address to be sent to the attacker instead.

ARP spoofing may allow an attacker to intercept data frames on a network, modify the traffic, or stop all traffic. Often the attack is used as an opening for other attacks, such as denial of service, man in the middle, or session hijacking attacks.[1]

The attack can only be used on networks that use the Address Resolution Protocol, and is limited to local network segments.[2]

ARP vulnerabilities

The Address Resolution Protocol is a widely used communications protocol for resolving Internet layer addresses into link layer addresses.[note 1]

When an Internet Protocol (IP) datagram is sent from one host to another in a local area network, the destination IP address must be resolved to a MAC address for transmission via the data link layer.[2] When another host's IP address is known, and its MAC address is needed, a broadcast packet is sent out on the local network. This packet is known as an ARP request. The destination machine with the IP in the ARP request then responds with an ARP reply, which contains the MAC address for that IP.[2]

ARP is a stateless protocol. Network hosts will automatically cache any ARP replies they receive, regardless of whether network hosts requested them. Even ARP entries which have not yet expired will be overwritten when a new ARP reply packet is received. There is no method in the ARP protocol by which a host can authenticate the peer from which the packet originated. This behavior is the vulnerability which allows ARP spoofing to occur.[1][2]

Anatomy of an ARP spoofing attack

The basic principle behind ARP spoofing is to exploit the lack of authentication in the ARP protocol by sending spoofed ARP messages onto the LAN. ARP spoofing attacks can be run from a compromised host on the LAN, or from an attacker's machine that is connected directly to the target LAN.

Generally, the goal of the attack is to associate the attacker's host MAC address with the IP address of a target host, so that any traffic meant for the target host will be sent to the attacker's host. The attacker may choose to inspect the packets (spying), while forwarding the traffic to the actual default destination to avoid discovery, modify the data before forwarding it (man-in-the-middle attack), or launch a denial-of-service attack by causing some or all of the packets on the network to be dropped.

Defenses

Static ARP entries

The simplest form of certification is the use of static, read-only entries for critical services in the ARP cache of a host. This prevents only simple attacks and does not scale on a large network, since the mapping has to be set for each pair of machines resulting in n2-n ARP entries that have to be configured when n machines are present: On every machine there must be an ARP entry for every other machine on the network, which are n-1 ARP entries on every of the n machines.

IP address-to-MAC address mappings in the local ARP cache may be statically entered so that hosts ignore all ARP reply packets.[3] While static entries provide some security against spoofing if the operating system handles them correctly, they result in maintenance efforts as address mappings of all systems in the network have to be distributed.

ARP spoofing detection and prevention software

Software that detects ARP spoofing generally relies on some form of certification or cross-checking of ARP responses. Uncertified ARP responses are then blocked. These techniques may be integrated with the DHCP server so that both dynamic and static IP addresses are certified. This capability may be implemented in individual hosts or may be integrated into Ethernet switches or other network equipment. The existence of multiple IP addresses associated with a single MAC address may indicate an ARP spoof attack, although there are legitimate uses of such a configuration. In a more passive approach a device listens for ARP replies on a network, and sends a notification via email when an ARP entry changes.

AntiARP[4] also provides Windows-based spoofing prevention at the kernel level. ArpStar is a Linux module for kernel 2.6 and Linksys routers that drops invalid packets that violate mapping, and contains an option to repoison/heal.

OS security

Operating systems react differently. Linux ignores unsolicited replies, but, on the other hand, uses responses to requests from other machines to update its cache. Solaris accepts updates on entries only after a timeout. In Microsoft Windows, the behavior of the ARP cache can be configured through several registry entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters, ArpCacheLife, ArpCacheMinReferenceLife, ArpUseEtherSNAP, ArpTRSingleRoute, ArpAlwaysSourceRoute, ArpRetryCount.[5]

Legitimate usage

See also: Proxy ARP

The techniques that are used in ARP spoofing can also be used to implement redundancy of network services. For example, some software allows a backup server to issue a gratuitous ARP request in order to take over for a defective server and transparently offer redundancy.[6] [7] There a two companies known to-date that have tried to commercialize products centered around this strategy, Disney Circle[8] and Cujo.[9] The latter has recently run into significant problems with employing an ARP-spoofing strategy in consumer's homes such that they have completely removed that capability from their setup process

ARP spoofing is often used by developers to debug IP traffic between two hosts when a switch is in use: if host A and host B are communicating through an Ethernet switch, their traffic would normally be invisible to a third monitoring host M. The developer configures A to have M's MAC address for B, and B to have M's MAC address for A; and also configures M to forward packets. M can now monitor the traffic, exactly as in a man-in-the-middle attack.

Tools

Defense

  • anti-arpspoof[10]
  • Antidote:[11] Linux daemon, monitors mappings, unusually large number of ARP packets.
  • Arp_Antidote:[12] Linux Kernel Patch for 2.4.18 - 2.4.20, watches mappings, can define action to take when.
  • Arpalert: Predefined list of allowed MAC addresses, alert if MAC that is not in list.
  • ArpON: Portable handler daemon for securing ARP against spoofing, cache poisoning or poison routing attacks in static, dynamic and hybrid networks.
  • Arpwatch
  • Arpwatch/ArpwatchNG/Winarpwatch: Keep mappings of IP-MAC pairs, report changes via Syslog, Email.
  • DefendARP:[13] A host-based ARP table monitoring and defense tool designed for use when connecting to public wifi. DefendARP detects ARP poisoning attacks, corrects the poisoned entry, and identifies the MAC and IP address of the attacker.
  • Prelude IDS: ArpSpoof plugin, basic checks on addresses.
  • Snort: Snort preprocessor Arpspoof, performs basic checks on addresses
  • XArp:[14] Advanced ARP spoofing detection, active probing and passive checks. Two user interfaces: normal view with predefined security levels, pro view with per-interface configuration of detection modules and active validation. Windows and Linux, GUI-based.

Spoofing

Some of the tools that can be used to carry out ARP spoofing attacks:

Name OS GUI Free Protection Per interface Active/passive
Agnitum Outpost Firewall Windows Yes No Yes No passive
AntiARP Windows Yes No YesNo active+passive
Antidote Linux No Yes No ? passive
Arp_Antidote Linux No Yes No ? passive
Arpalert Linux No YesNoYespassive
ArpON LinuxNo YesYesYes active+passive
ArpGuard MacYes NoYesYes active+passive
ArpStar Linux No YesYes?passive
Arpwatch Linux No YesNoYespassive
ArpwatchNG LinuxNo YesNoNopassive
Colasoft Capsa WindowsYes NoNoYes no detection, only analysis with manual inspection
cSploit[18] Android (rooted only)Yes Yes NoYespassive
Prelude IDS ?? ????
remarp LinuxNo YesNoNopassive
Snort Windows/LinuxNo YesNoYespassive
Winarpwatch Windows No Yes NoNopassive
XArp[14] Windows, Linux Yes Yes (+pro version) Yes (Linux, pro)Yes active + passive
Seconfig XP Windows 2000/XP/2003 only Yes Yes YesNoonly activates protection built-in some versions of Windows
zANTI Android (rooted only) Yes Yes No?passive

Notes

  1. ↑ ARP was defined by RFC 826 in 1982.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Ramachandran, Vivek & Nandi, Sukumar (2005). "Detecting ARP Spoofing: An Active Technique". In Jajodia, Suchil & Mazumdar, Chandan. Information systems security: first international conference, ICISS 2005, Kolkata, India, December 19-21, 2005 : proceedings. Birkhauser. p. 239. ISBN 978-3-540-30706-8.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lockhart, Andrew (2007). Network security hacks. O'Reilly. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-596-52763-1.
  3. ↑ Lockhart, Andrew (2007). Network security hacks. O'Reilly. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-596-52763-1.
  4. ↑ AntiARP Archived June 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ Address Resolution Protocol
  6. ↑ "OpenBSD manpage for CARP (4)"., retrieved 2013-01-04
  7. ↑ Simon Horman. "Ultra Monkey: IP Address Takeover"., retrieved 2013-01-04
  8. ↑ "Circle with Disney Locks Down Kids Devices from Afar"., retrieved 2016-10-12
  9. ↑ "Review explaining the strategy shift."., retrieved 2016-10-12
  10. ↑ anti-arpspoof Archived August 31, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ↑ Antidote
  12. ↑ Arp_Antidote
  13. ↑ Defense Scripts | ARP Poisoning
  14. 1 2 XArp
  15. ↑ "Subterfuge Project". Retrieved 2013-11-18.
  16. ↑ "Seringe - Statically Compiled ARP Poisoning Tool". Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "ARP Vulnerabilities: The Complete Documentation". l0T3K. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  18. 1 2 "cSploit". tux_mind. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  19. ↑ "ARP cache poisoning tool for Windows". Archived from the original on July 9, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
  20. ↑ "Simsang". Retrieved 2013-08-25.

External links

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