Snarf is a term used by computer programmers and the

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

community meaning to copy a file or data over a network, for any purpose, with additional specialist meanings to access data without appropriate permission. It also refers to using

command line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

tools to transfer files through the

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, ...

gopher Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 speciesSearch results for "Geomyidae" on thASM Mammal Diversity Database are all endemic to North and Central America. They are ...

finger A finger is a limb of the body and a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of most of the Tetrapods, so also with humans and other primates. Most land vertebrates have five fingers ( Pentadactyly). Chambers ...

, and

FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data ...

protocols without user interaction, and to a method of achieving

cache coherence In computer architecture, cache coherence is the uniformity of shared resource data that ends up stored in multiple local caches. When clients in a system maintain caches of a common memory resource, problems may arise with incoherent data, whi ...

in a

multiprocessing Multiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. There ar ...

computer architecture through observation of writes to cached data.

Example

An example of a snarf is the Evil twin attack, using a simple shell script running software like AirSnarf to create a wireless hotspot complete with a

captive portal A captive portal is a web page accessed with a web browser that is displayed to newly connected users of a Wi-Fi or wired network before they are granted broader access to network resources. Captive portals are commonly used to present a landing ...

. Wireless clients that associate to a snarf access point will receive an IP, DNS, and gateway and appear completely normal. Users will have all of their DNS queries resolve to the attacker's

IP number An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

, regardless of their DNS settings, so any website they attempt to visit will bring up a snarf "splash page", requesting a username and password. The username and password entered by unsuspecting users will be mailed to root@localhost. The reason this works is: #Legitimate access points can be impersonated and/or drowned out by rogue access points, and #Users without a means to validate the authenticity of access points will nevertheless give up their hotspot credentials when asked for them

References

{{Reflist

External links

Airsnarf Attack
* Wiktionary "snarf" Privacy of telecommunications Web security exploits Cybercrime

Example

See also

References

External links