passive attack

nounverified·updated May 9, 2026

GlossaryL1 — what DictionaryL2 — how used ThesaurusL3 — relations Universaleverything

An attack against an authentication protocol where the Attacker intercepts data traveling along the network between the Claimant and Verifier, but does not alter the data (i.e., eavesdropping).

polysemousMWENISTIR 7298: Glossary of Key Information Security Terms, Revision 2

Senses

2 more senses beyond the canonical

National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS) Cybersecurity Lexicon

An actual assault perpetrated by an intentional threat source that attempts to learn or make use of information from a system, but does not attempt to alter the system, its resources, its data, or its operations.

NISTIR 7298: Glossary of Key Information Security Terms, Revision 2sense 2 pending review

An attack that does not alter systems or data.

Classifications

per-axis with provenance

Entity Type

Threat92%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5

?unassignedlast reviewed —

Sensitivity

unclassified

Information Class

unclassified

Variants

3 surface forms

plural: passive attacks
possessive: passive attack's
pluralpossessive: passive attacks'

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