Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Practice Exam

Which of the following represents a type of attack that takes advantage of trusted connections?

1. Brute force attack

2. Man-in-the-middle attack

3. Denial of Service attack

4. Trust exploitation attack

The correct answer is: Trust exploitation attack

The identification of trust exploitation attacks accurately captures the essence of attacks that manipulate trusted connections. This type of attack occurs when a malicious actor takes advantage of the inherent trust that exists between two systems, often leveraging established authentication credentials or session information to gain unauthorized access or to impersonate one of the trusted parties. In many network environments, systems communicate under the assumption that they can fully trust each other. When this trust is exploited, it can lead to serious security breaches, as the attacker may intercept, alter, or redirect communications between legitimate parties without their knowledge. Brute force attacks, while they involve attempting numerous combinations to discover passwords or encryption keys, do not specifically manipulate trusted connections. Man-in-the-middle attacks do involve intercepting communications, but they primarily focus on eavesdropping rather than exploiting trust directly. Denial of Service attacks aim to overwhelm a service and make it unavailable, which does not involve a breach of trust, but rather an overload of resources. Trust exploitation attacks are distinct in that they inherently rely on circumventing the expected assurance of security provided by trusted connections.