A helpdesk technician received a phone call from an administrator at a remote branch office. The administrator claimed to have forgotten the password for the root account on UNIX servers and asked…

A replay attack involves capturing valid network authentication data and retransmitting it to gain unauthorized access, not manipulating a person over a phone call.

Social engineering exploits human trust, authority, or friendliness to bypass security controls without any technical exploitation. The attacker impersonated a legitimate administrator and used a friendly demeanor to persuade the technician to voluntarily disclose the root password. The attack succeeded entirely through psychological manipulation, which is the defining characteristic of social engineering.

A brute force attack systematically attempts all possible password combinations using automated tools until the correct one is found, requiring no human interaction.

War dialing involves automatically scanning ranges of phone numbers to discover modems or systems connected to phone lines, not deceiving individuals into revealing credentials.