What is phishing?

Redirecting internet traffic to malicious sites describes DNS spoofing or pharming, which manipulates name resolution rather than using deceptive email.

Infecting a system with a virus describes malware delivery, which may be a secondary payload of a phishing attack but is not the definition of phishing itself.

Phishing specifically involves crafting fraudulent emails that impersonate trusted entities - such as banks, IT departments, or vendors - to trick users into providing sensitive information like passwords or credit card numbers. The defining characteristic is the use of deception through messaging rather than a technical exploit.

Exploiting a vulnerability in software describes a technical exploit or zero-day attack, which is a code-level attack rather than a social engineering technique.