Active sniffing on a switched LAN typically involves what action?

Active sniffing on a switched LAN typically involves what action?

• A. Injecting traffic into the network to observe responses
• B. Listening passively to traffic
• C. Flooding the CAM table with fake addresses
• D. Encrypting traffic to avoid detection

Answer: (A)

Active sniffing on a switched LAN hinges on generating traffic to reveal data you wouldn’t see by listening alone. On a switch, traffic is scoped to the destination port, so simply “watching” usually won’t capture other hosts’ conversations. By injecting traffic—think forged frames, probes, or ARP responses—you provoke responses or steer more traffic through your path, enabling you to observe or intercept what’s happening. This is the essence of active sniffing: creating conditions that expose more of the network’s activity to you. Passive listening isn’t enough on a switch because it doesn’t expose all the traffic; flooding the CAM table is a disruptive attack that aims to confuse the switch rather than provide legitimate visibility; encrypting traffic stops sniffing rather than enabling it.

Active sniffing on a switched LAN hinges on generating traffic to reveal data you wouldn’t see by listening alone. On a switch, traffic is scoped to the destination port, so simply “watching” usually won’t capture other hosts’ conversations. By injecting traffic—think forged frames, probes, or ARP responses—you provoke responses or steer more traffic through your path, enabling you to observe or intercept what’s happening. This is the essence of active sniffing: creating conditions that expose more of the network’s activity to you.

Passive listening isn’t enough on a switch because it doesn’t expose all the traffic; flooding the CAM table is a disruptive attack that aims to confuse the switch rather than provide legitimate visibility; encrypting traffic stops sniffing rather than enabling it.