Which type of sniffing technique is used on a switch-based network?

Question

Options

• AARP poisoning
• BMAC flooding
• CDNS spoofing
• DPing sweep

• A
  4% (1)
• B
  72% (18)
• C
  16% (4)
• D
  8% (2)

Explanation

MAC flooding directly targets the switch's CAM (Content Addressable Memory) table by bombarding it with thousands of fake MAC addresses until the table overflows, forcing the switch to broadcast traffic out all ports like a hub - allowing an attacker to capture packets not destined for them.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (ARP poisoning) manipulates the ARP cache to redirect traffic for man-in-the-middle attacks; it's a separate technique that operates at the protocol level, not by exploiting the switch's memory table.
• C (DNS spoofing) corrupts DNS resolution to redirect users to malicious hosts - it's a redirection attack, not a packet capture technique.
• D (Ping sweep) is a reconnaissance tool used to discover live hosts on a network, not a sniffing or traffic-capture technique.

Memory tip: Think of a switch as a smart traffic cop who only directs packets to the right destination. MAC flooding overwhelms the cop with fake addresses until they give up and just yell everything to everyone - turning your smart switch into a dumb hub.

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