In this cyber world, the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) and its spoofing assaults are nothing new, but history explains why these attacks are so common. ARP was created in the 1980s to allow networks to manage connections without using a separate device for each one. Although this makes it easier for two machines to connect and exchange information more efficiently and freely, it exposes your data to risks and theft.
Spoofing attacks are common and have a wide range of consequences. They are generally identified in computer networking as IP spoofing attacks. Source IP filtering is not used in the vast majority of computer networks. Cybercriminals can inject any address they choose into an outgoing data packet. As a result, the IP addresses in question appear to be coming from a trusted machine.
This article will highlight the best tools for ARP spoofing. Here’s the table of content:
What is ARP Spoofing?
ARP spoofing is an attack in 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. The attacker can then choose to forward (or not forward) packets to their actual destination.
ARP spoofing aims to intercept data frames on a network, modify them for malicious purposes or stop forwarding them to the appropriate computer and, therefore, stop all communication between two hosts. Often the attack is used as an opening for other attacks, such as denial-of-service, man-in-the-middle, or session hijacking attacks.
A more advanced form of ARP spoofing, known as ARP cache poisoning, allows traffic redirection on layers three and four of the OSI model. The attack can only be used on networks that use the Address Resolution Protocol, except IPv6 networks.
Major ARP Spoofing Attacks
Veracode offers a resource that lists the three main spoofing attacks to look out for:
- DDoS attack: Spoofing is often used to enhance DDoS (distributed denial of service) cyberattacks, which target a computer system to make it unavailable to the people who rely on it. It is done by flooding the system with more requests than it can handle.
- Session hijacking: Session hijacking is when a hacker takes over an existing user session. It is often achieved through spoofing. For example, a hacker could use spoofing to intercept session IDs and other useful information as it’s communicated between two computers and subsequently use it to impersonate the legitimate user.
- Continued packet theft: Packet theft involves an attacker inserting themselves between two communicating parties to intercept their communications, like your PC and a website you’re visiting. While this section focuses on IP spoofing, other types of spoofing exist that can be used to commit packet theft, such as ARP spoofing, where attackers intercept local network traffic by impersonating another device on that network.
Top 7 ARP Spoofing Tools
There are a lot of open-source tools to perform ARP spoofing, I have picked the top 7 tools for you. Note that you can make your own ARP spoofing tool using Scapy in Python, check this tutorial if you want that.
arpspoof
arpspoof is a tool for network auditing. This tool allows an attacker to intercept the traffic on a network, modify it and capture passwords and other data using ARP poisoning and other techniques.
Key Features
- Redirects traffic on the local network by forging ARP replies and sending them to either a specific target or all the hosts on the local network paths.
- Simple package for testing
- Use in conjunction with other tools for more sophisticated attacks.
Learn: How to Perform ARP Spoof in Linux using Arspoof and Arping.
Netcommander
Netcommander is an open-source graphical utility that offers a cleaner interface than the original command-line tool.
Key Features
- It runs on Linux and MacOSX and requires Libnet 1.1.2 or newer.
- It can be used to perform man-in-the-middle attacks against wireless networks or any situation where the local IP address is known.
Larp
Larp is a simple ARP spoofing tool with which you can test ARP cache poisoning.
Larp uses Scapy to implement the ARP protocol. You need to install Scapy before using this tool, but that’s easy to do in Kali Linux as it comes preinstalled with Scapy.
Pentesters and security professionals are the intended users of this program.
Key Features
- It has various options available for advanced users, like using a different interface, target port, etc.
- Network spoofing and penetration testing are prominent uses.
Installing Scapy:
Aranea
Aranea is a free and open-source web proxy written in Java that enables the user to intercept HTTP(S) requests and responses between the victim and their browser. The user can then modify these requests/responses on-the-fly and benchmark websites’ performance.
Key Features
- Aranea is a Libpcap-based rapid DNS spoofing tool.
- It’s multithreaded, tidy, and adaptable.
- It specifies hostnames using regular expressions.
KickThemOut
KickThemOut is an ARP spoofing tool used to kick devices off your network by sending spoofed ARP requests to the target computers. It can also be used for DNS poisoning and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Key Features
- Monitoring of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
- With just one daemon, you can keep track of several network interfaces.
- VLAN tagged (802.1Q) traffic is monitored.
- Stdout, plain text files, Syslog, sqlite3, and MySQL, are all options.
- The output and logging of IP addresses are preserved.
Cain & Abel
Due to the popularity of Cain & Abel, it is listed in both password cracking and ARP spoofing tools. It is an overall network monitoring tool that can be used for ARP spoofing. It can sniff traffic, crack encryption keys, recover passwords, attack clients and servers and do a lot more.
You can also use Cain & Abel to sniff cleartext passwords out of traffic on your network. It works by listening to network traffic and identifying passwords on the fly.
Key Features
- Wireless packet injection improves packet capture speed.
- VoIP talks can be recorded.
- Deciphering passwords that have been scrambled.
- Calculating hashes is a tedious task.
- Getting access to passwords that have been cached
Arpoison
Arpoison is an extremely powerful ARP spoofer. It’s a simple, lightweight tool that creates an ARP spoofing attack on your computer. It’s easy to use and will quickly get the job done if you’re looking to spoof your MAC address.
Key Features
- It contains two modes, “Vicious” and “Normal.” In ‘vicious’ mode, Arpoison will send out gratuitous ARP replies for every IP address in the local network. It is a rather noisy approach that’s only suitable for short-term use.
- Arpoison will only respond to ARP requests for a specific target IP address in’ normal mode.
- Works with Libnet 1.1x
Final Words
ARP spoofing is an essential skill for anyone working in IT and anyone with a healthy interest in security. ARP spoofing can be surprisingly easy and effective, requiring almost no technical skill. It provides you with valuable insight into how hackers can break into systems and networks, allowing you to create and configure strong passwords and protocols and maintain vigilance against all those who would harm the web. Learning how to do it on a router will never hurt, especially if you have no ethical intentions whatsoever!
Related: How to Capture Packets using Tcpdump.
