man-in-the-middle attack

English

Noun

man-in-the-middle attack (plural man-in-the-middle attacks)

1. (computing, security) A security attack in which someone intercepts the communication between a device and the server it is connected to, simulating the device to the server and simulating the server to the device.
   • 2014, Emmett Dulaney, Security, page 324:

     Man-in-the-middle attacks clandestinely place something (such as a piece of software or a rouge router) between a server and the user about which neither the server's administrators nor the user is aware.

   • 2016, Ho-won Kim, Dooho Choi, Information Security Applications, page 70:

     In the general man-in-the-middle attack, the role of E in a tag access operation is to fake and forward data.

   • 2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 76:

     It had taken Robert Lemoine barely twenty minutes to execute the man-in-the-middle attack.