Which device monitors network traffic in a passive manner?
D. Web browser
Correct Answer: A
Section: Threats and Vulnerabilities
A sniffer is another name for a protocol analyzer. A protocol analyzer performs its function in a passive manner. In other words, computers on the network do not know that their data
packets have been captured.
A Protocol Analyzer is a hardware device or more commonly a software program used to capture network data communications sent between devices on a network. Capturing packets
sent from a computer system is known as packet sniffing.
Well known software protocol analyzers include Message Analyzer (formerly Network Monitor) from Microsoft and Wireshark (formerly Ethereal).
A sniffer (packet sniffer) is a tool that intercepts data flowing in a network. If computers are connected to a local area network that is not filtered or switched, the traffic can be
broadcast to all computers contained in the same segment. This doesn’t generally occur, since computers are generally told to ignore all the comings and goings of traffic from other
computers. However, in the case of a sniffer, all traffic is shared when the sniffer software commands the Network Interface Card (NIC) to stop ignoring the traffic. The NIC is put into
promiscuous mode, and it reads communications between computers within a particular segment. This allows the sniffer to seize everything that is flowing in the network, which can
lead to the unauthorized access of sensitive data. A packet sniffer can take the form of either a hardware or software solution. A sniffer is also known as a packet analyzer.
B: An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a device or software application that monitors network or system activities for malicious activities or policy violations and produces reports to a
management station. IDS come in a variety of “flavors” and approach the goal of detecting suspicious traffic in different ways. There are network based (NIDS) and host based (HIDS)
intrusion detection systems. Some systems may attempt to stop an intrusion attempt but this is neither required nor expected of a monitoring system. Intrusion detection and
prevention systems (IDPS) are primarily focused on identifying possible incidents, logging information about them, and reporting attempts. An IDS does not passively monitor network
C: A firewall is used to block or allow network traffic according to rules specifying source address, destination address, protocol or port number. It does not passively monitor network
D: A Web browser is used to view web sites. It does not monitor network traffic.