What are the attack vectors for passwords sent over http?
- by KevinM
I am trying to convince a customer to pay for SSL for a web site that requires login. I want to make sure I correctly understand the major scenarios in which someone can see the passwords that are being sent.
My understanding is that at any of the hops along the way can use a packet analyzer to view what is being sent. This seems to require that any hacker (or their malware/botnet) be on the same subnet as any of the hops the packet takes to arrive at its destination. Is that right?
Assuming some flavor of this subnet requirement holds true, do I need to worry about all the hops or just the first one? The first one I can obviously worry about if they're on a public Wifi network since anyone could be listening in. Should I be worried about what's going on in subnets that packets will travel across outside this? I don't know a ton about network traffic, but I would assume it's flowing through data centers of major carriers and there's not a lot of juicy attack vectors there, but please correct me if I am wrong.
Are there other vectors to be worried about outside of someone listening with a packet analyzer?
I am a networking and security noob, so please feel free to set me straight if I am using the wrong terminology in any of this.
