Spoofing and TCP/IP Many of the protocols in the
TCP/IP suite do not provide mechanisms for
authenticating the source or destination of a message, leaving them vulnerable to spoofing attacks when extra precautions are not taken by applications to verify the identity of the sending or receiving host. IP spoofing and
ARP spoofing in particular may be used to leverage
man-in-the-middle attacks against hosts on a
computer network. Spoofing attacks which take advantage of TCP/IP suite protocols may be mitigated with the use of
firewalls capable of
deep packet inspection or by taking measures to verify the identity of the sender or recipient of a message.
Domain name spoofing The term 'Domain name spoofing' (or simply though less accurately, 'Domain spoofing') is used generically to describe one or more of a class of
phishing attacks that depend on falsifying or misrepresenting an internet
domain name. These are designed to persuade unsuspecting users into visiting a web site other than that intended, or opening an email that is not in reality from the address shown (or apparently shown). Although website and email spoofing attacks are more widely known, any service that relies on
domain name resolution may be compromised.
Referrer spoofing Some websites, especially pornographic
paysites, allow access to their materials only from certain approved (login-) pages. This is enforced by checking the
referrer header of the
HTTP request. This referrer header, however, can be changed (known as "
referrer spoofing" or "Ref-tar spoofing"), allowing users to gain unauthorized access to the materials.
Poisoning of file-sharing networks "
Spoofing" can also refer to
copyright holders placing distorted or unlistenable versions of works on
file-sharing networks.
E-mail address spoofing The sender information shown in
e-mails (the From: field) can be spoofed easily. This technique is commonly used by
spammers to hide the origin of their e-mails and leads to problems such as misdirected
bounces (i.e. e-mail spam
backscatter). E-mail address spoofing is done in quite the same way as writing a forged return address using
snail mail. As long as the letter fits the protocol, (i.e. stamp,
postal code) the
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) will send the message. It can be done using a mail server with
telnet.
Geolocation Geolocation spoofing occurs when a user applies technologies to make their device appear to be located somewhere other than where it is actually located. The most common geolocation spoofing is through the use of a
Virtual Private Network (VPN) or
DNS Proxy in order for the user to appear to be located in a different country, state or territory other than where they are actually located. According to a study by
GlobalWebIndex, 49% of global VPN users utilize VPNs primarily to access
territorially restricted entertainment content. This type of geolocation spoofing is also referred to as geo-piracy, since the user is illicitly accessing copyrighted materials via geolocation spoofing technology. Another example of geolocation spoofing occurred when an online poker player in California used geolocation spoofing techniques to play online poker in
New Jersey, in contravention of both
California and New Jersey state law. Forensic geolocation evidence proved the geolocation spoofing and the player forfeited more than $90,000 in winnings. ==Telephony==