: This involves monitoring traffic without injecting any data into the network. It is most effective on older hardware like Ethernet hubs, which broadcast all traffic to every port. On modern switches, hackers use features like Port Mirroring or SPAN (Switched Port Analyzer) to copy traffic from a specific port to their machine.
Network sniffing is the digital equivalent of wiretapping—a method used by ethical hackers to intercept and inspect data packets as they traverse a network. By "eavesdropping" on these conversations, security professionals can identify unpatched vulnerabilities, weak passwords, and misconfigured services before malicious actors do. Core Sniffing Techniques ethical hacking: sniffers [author] videos