Meanings
plural man-in-the-middle attacks
- computingA security attack in which someone intercepts the communication between a device and the server it is connected to, simulating the device to the server and simulating the server to the device.
It had taken Robert Lemoine barely twenty minutes to execute the man-in-the-middle attack.
2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 762 more examples
Man-in-the-middle attacks clandestinely place something (such as a piece of software or a rouge router) between a server and the user about which neither the server's administrators nor the user is aware.
2014, Emmett Dulaney, Security, page 324In the general man-in-the-middle attack, the role of E in a tag access operation is to fake and forward data.
2016, Ho-won Kim, Dooho Choi, Information Security Applications, page 70Synonyms: on-path attack
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA security attack in which someone intercepts the communication between a device and the server it is connected to, simulating the device to the server and simulating the server to the device.
Cite this entry
man-in-the-middle attack. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/man-in-the-middle%20attack
“man-in-the-middle attack.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/man-in-the-middle%20attack. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “man-in-the-middle attack,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/man-in-the-middle%20attack.
Source: man-in-the-middle attack on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.