CAPEC Definitions

    CAPEC Definitions / CAPEC-89

    CAPEC-89: Pharming

    A pharming attack occurs when the victim is fooled into entering sensitive data into supposedly trusted locations, such as an online bank site or a trading platform. An attacker can impersonate these supposedly trusted sites and have the victim be directed to their site rather than the originally intended one. Pharming does not require script injection or clicking on malicious links for the attack to succeed.

    Severity:Very High
    Possibility:High

    Extended Description

    No Extended Description.

    Mitigations

    All sensitive information must be handled over a secure connection.

    Known vulnerabilities in DNS or router software or in operating systems must be patched as soon as a fix has been released and tested.

    End users must ensure that they provide sensitive information only to websites that they trust, over a secure connection with a valid certificate issued by a well-known certificate authority.

    Relationships with other CAPECs

    CAPEC-151: Identity Spoofing

    Prerequisites

    Vulnerable DNS software or improperly protected hosts file or router that can be poisoned

    A website that handles sensitive information but does not use a secure connection and a certificate that is valid is also prone to pharming

    Related Weaknesses

    CWE-346: Origin Validation Error

    CWE-350: Reliance on Reverse DNS Resolution for a Security-Critical Action