Man in the middle attack in DES | How to prevent man in the middle attack

What is man in the middle attack?

Man-in-the-middle attack (Meet-in-the-middle attack) is a common type of security attack that allows attackers to eavesdrop on the communication between two users.

The attack takes place in between two users, allowing the attacker to “listen” to a conversation, without permission of users, hence the name “man-in-the-middle.”

How man in the middle attack takes place in DES

Figure: Block diagram of Double DES

As per DES algorithm, there will be one secret key used for encryption and decryption. As per double DES algorithm two keys K₁ & K₂ for encryption and also both key K₁ & K₂ are used for decryption.

Figure: Man in the middle attack in double DES

As per shown in figure, when generate first cipher text with help of plain text message and key K₁. Resultant cipher text will be stored, cipher text C₁ will be captured by attacker and it decrypt cipher text. Attacker can get original plain text. He/she will modify the plain text and generate new cipher text C₁ using key K₁ and send for another encryption process using key K₂.

Second encrypted cipher text sends to the receiver. Receiver side plain text is same as attacker plain text not the sender side plain text. This type of attack is called meet in the middle attack. We cannot easily detect man-in-the-middle attack, so we need to prevent man-in-the-middle attack before communication.

 

How to prevent from Man-in-the-Middle Attack

Strong WEP/WAP Encryption on Access Points

Strong Router Login Credentials

Virtual Private Network

Use of HTTPS

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