What characterizes a man-in-the-middle attack?

A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack is characterized primarily by the attacker impersonating a legitimate destination to intercept and potentially alter communication between two parties who believe they are directly communicating with each other. In a typical MITM scenario, the attacker positions themselves between the user and the intended destination, allowing them to eavesdrop on the communication, capture sensitive data (such as login credentials), or even modify the data being transferred without the knowledge of either party.

By impersonating the legitimate destination, the attacker can maintain the illusion of a secure connection while the victim unknowingly shares sensitive information with the attacker. This method undermines the trust that users place in secure communications and highlights the importance of authentication mechanisms to verify the identity of the parties in a communication.

While disrupting network flow, stealing credentials, and encrypting the data stream may involve malicious behavior, they do not define the MITM attack specifically. Disruption of network flow could relate to denial of service attacks, direct theft of user credentials involves different tactics, and encryption of the data stream pertains to securing communications rather than the impersonation aspect that is central to a MITM attack.