Eclipse-Attack
An eclipse attack is a type of attack in computer security that tries to isolate a victim node from the rest of the network. This attack works by manipulating the routing tables of a victim node in the network, so that all of its incoming and outgoing traffic goes through attacker-controlled nodes. In essence, the victim node is “eclipsed” from the rest of the network, meaning that all communication is effectively intercepted and controlled by the attacker.
Imagine a group of friends playing a game of telephone, passing messages from one to another down a line. Now imagine there is one person in the group who wants to control all the messages. They might purposely mislead the person next to them, changing the message as it is passed along. Eventually, the message that reaches the last person in the line is completely different from the original.
In a similar way, an attacker can use an eclipse attack to manipulate the routing tables of a node so that all incoming and outgoing traffic is sent through their own nodes. This allows them to control all communication and potentially intercept sensitive information. Eclipse attacks can be particularly dangerous in peer-to-peer networks, where trust is often established based on a node’s reputation and its access to the network. By eclipsing a trustworthy node, an attacker can gain access to sensitive information and potentially spread malware or compromise the entire network.