What Is Attack Vector? Different Types of Attack Vectors

What Is Attack Vector?

What is an attack vector?

Attack vector is a method used by attackers to obtain local or remote networks and computers. This is a term used in the information security industry to describe the path of an attacker (or malware). By understanding attack paths, enterprises can effectively manage assets and reduce security risks.

It allows hackers to access computers or network servers to deliver payloads or malicious results. Attack vectors enable hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in the system.

Cyber attack vectors include viruses, E-mail attachments, web pages, pop-ups, instant messaging, chat rooms, and spoofing. All of these methods involve software and, in rare cases, hardware and spoofing. In spoofing, a human operator is usually fooled into removing or weakening a system’s defenses.

Types of Attack Vector

Then there are different types of attack vectors.

Compromised Credentials Attacks

A compromised certificate attack is a cyber-attack in which a malicious actor uses a list of compromised certificates to try to log into a wide range of online accounts and then steal personal or financial information from the compromised account or take it over entirely.

Since authentication is typically implemented through API, this attack is a significant threat to API security.

Insider Threats

Insider threat is the potential for an insider to use their authorized access or understanding of an organization to harm that organization. This harm can include malicious, complacent, or unintentional acts that negatively affect the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the organization, its data, personnel, or facilities.

Man-in-the-Middle Attacks

Man-in-the-middle Attack (MITM) is a long-standing network intrusion method, and it still has a wide development space. For example, SMB session hijacking, DNS spoofing, and other attacks are typical MITM attacks.

In short, the so-called MITM attack is to intercept normal network communication data, and carry out data tampering and sniffing, while the communication parties are unaware.

Ransomware

Ransomware is malware designed to deny a user or organization access to files on their computer. By encrypting these files and demanding a ransom payment for the decryption key, cyberattacks place organizations in a position where paying the ransom is the easiest and cheapest way to regain access to their files.

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Phishing

Phishing is a criminal scam that attempts to obtain sensitive personal information such as user names, passwords, and credit card details from electronic communications by posing as reputable corporate media.

These communications purport to be from social-networking auction sites, Internet banks, electronic payment sites, or network administrators to lure victims into credulity.

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Brute Force Attack

Brute force attacks are trial-and-error methods most commonly used to crack passwords and encryption keys. Brute force attacks do not employ intelligence strategies, but simply try to use different combinations of characters until the right combination is found.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

Distributed denial of service attacks can attack many computers at the same time so that the target of the attack cannot be used normally.

The distributed denial of service attack can forge the source IP address during the attack. In this way, the attack is very hidden and difficult to detect and defend against.

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SQL Injections

SQL injection is a security vulnerability that occurs at the application and database levels. In short, SQL instructions are injected into the input string, and character checking is neglected in a poorly designed program.

These injected malicious instructions can be run by the database server as normal SQL instructions, and thus be corrupted or hacked.

Cross-Site Scripting

An XSS attack (cross-site scripting) is a security vulnerability attack on a web application that allows a malicious user to inject code into a web page so that other users are affected when viewing the web page. These attacks usually include HTML as well as user-side scripting languages.

Session Hijacking

Session hijacking is an attack method that obtains the Session ID of a user and uses the Session ID to log in to the target account. In this case, the attacker uses the valid Session of the target account.

The first step in session hijacking is to obtain a legitimate session ID to pose as a legitimate user, so you need to ensure that the session ID is not leaked.

Bottom Line:

Most people or companies will encounter attack vectors more or less. Cyber attacks can be anywhere and only if your cyber information could be valuable, the risk lurks around everywhere. Battling against attack vectors is what you need in protecting your privacy and online security.