What is sniffing in networking?

What is sniffing in networking?

• A. Scanning for open ports
• B. Process of reading the packets as they are transmitted
• C. Decrypting encrypted traffic
• D. Generating random traffic to test network

Answer: (B)

Sniffing in networking is the process of capturing and reading the packets as they are transmitted over the network. A packet sniffer listens to traffic on a link, often placing the network interface in promiscuous mode (or monitor mode for wireless) so it can see frames not addressed to the device. It then analyzes the headers and payloads to reveal information like source and destination addresses, protocols used, and sometimes the actual data, if not encrypted. This concept is distinct from scanning for open ports (which probes a host to discover reachable services), decrypting encrypted traffic (which aims to convert ciphertext back to plaintext but isn’t about passively listening), or generating random traffic to test a network (which is about creating traffic for testing rather than observing it).

Sniffing in networking is the process of capturing and reading the packets as they are transmitted over the network. A packet sniffer listens to traffic on a link, often placing the network interface in promiscuous mode (or monitor mode for wireless) so it can see frames not addressed to the device. It then analyzes the headers and payloads to reveal information like source and destination addresses, protocols used, and sometimes the actual data, if not encrypted. This concept is distinct from scanning for open ports (which probes a host to discover reachable services), decrypting encrypted traffic (which aims to convert ciphertext back to plaintext but isn’t about passively listening), or generating random traffic to test a network (which is about creating traffic for testing rather than observing it).