Sniffing and spoofing network traffic

You will have most likely noticed the Kali Linux motto: The quieter you are, the more you are able to hear. This is the heart of sniffing network traffic. You quietly listen to the network traffic, copying every packet on the wire. Every packet is important or it wouldn't be there. Think about that for a moment with your security hat on. Do you understand why sending passwords in clear text is so bad? Well, protocols such as Telnet, FTP, and HTTP send passwords in clear text, instead of an encrypted hash. Any packet sniffer will catch these passwords and it doesn't take a genius to launch a search of the packet capture for terms such as password. There's no need to crack a hash; it is just there. You can impress a manager or a client by just pulling their clear-text password out of thin air. The bad guys use the same technique...