10 Cyber Attack Types and Explanations

1. Phishing Attacks

What it is: Phishing is a social engineering attack where cybercriminals impersonate legitimate organizations through fraudulent emails, text messages, or websites to trick victims into revealing sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, or personal data.

How it works programmatically: Attackers create spoofed emails or websites that mimic legitimate sources. They use HTML/CSS to replicate authentic login pages, then capture credentials via form submissions. The data is sent to attacker-controlled servers through POST requests. Attackers often use mass email campaigns with malicious links or attachments that appear to come from trusted sources like banks, government agencies, or popular services.

2. SQL Injection (SQLi)

What it is: SQL Injection is a code injection technique that exploits security vulnerabilities in an application's database layer. Attackers insert malicious SQL statements into input fields to manipulate or access the database, potentially gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data, modifying records, or taking control of the database server.

How it works programmatically: Attackers insert malicious SQL code into input fields. If the application doesn't sanitize inputs, the database executes the injected commands. For example, in a vulnerable login form, an attacker might input special characters and SQL commands that alter the intended query logic, bypassing authentication or extracting entire database contents.

3. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

What it is: Cross-Site Scripting is a web security vulnerability that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. These scripts execute in the victim's browser within the context of the trusted website, enabling attackers to steal session cookies, redirect users, deface websites, or capture keystrokes.

How it works programmatically: Attackers inject malicious JavaScript into web pages viewed by other users. The script executes in victims' browsers, stealing cookies, session tokens, or redirecting to malicious sites. This can happen through stored XSS (permanently stored on target servers), reflected XSS (immediately returned in responses), or DOM-based XSS (manipulating the page's Document Object Model).

4. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

What it is: A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic to a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic from multiple sources. These attacks use networks of compromised computers (botnets) to generate massive amounts of requests, making the target unavailable to legitimate users.

How it works programmatically: Multiple compromised systems (botnet) flood a target with requests, overwhelming server resources. Attackers use automated scripts running on thousands or millions of infected devices simultaneously sending HTTP requests, ping floods, or SYN floods to consume bandwidth, processing power, and connection capacity until the target system crashes or becomes unresponsive.

5. Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attack

What it is: A Man-in-the-Middle attack occurs when an attacker secretly intercepts and potentially alters communications between two parties who believe they are communicating directly with each other. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on sensitive information like login credentials, financial data, or personal messages, and even inject malicious content into the communication stream.

How it works programmatically: Attackers intercept communication between two parties. They can use ARP spoofing (manipulating network address tables), DNS spoofing (redirecting domain lookups), or SSL stripping (downgrading secure connections) to position themselves between client and server. The attacker's system acts as a relay, capturing all data passing through while forwarding it to maintain the illusion of normal communication.

6. Ransomware

What it is: Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts a victim's files or locks their entire system, making data inaccessible. Attackers then demand a ransom payment (usually in cryptocurrency) in exchange for the decryption key. Modern ransomware variants often also steal data before encryption, threatening to publish sensitive information if payment isn't made.

How it works programmatically: Malware encrypts victim's files using strong encryption algorithms like AES-256 or RSA, then demands payment for the decryption key. The ransomware typically spreads through phishing emails, malicious downloads, or exploiting system vulnerabilities. Once activated, it systematically scans and encrypts files, displays a ransom note with payment instructions, and may delete backup copies to prevent recovery.

7. Brute Force Attack

What it is: A brute force attack is a trial-and-error method used to crack passwords, encryption keys, or find hidden web pages by systematically trying all possible combinations until the correct one is found. These attacks can target login pages, encrypted files, or any authentication mechanism, relying on computational power and time rather than sophisticated techniques.

How it works programmatically: Automated scripts systematically try all possible password combinations or use dictionary lists (containing common passwords and variations) until finding the correct one. Attackers use specialized software that can test thousands or millions of combinations per second, often targeting multiple accounts simultaneously. Advanced versions use credential databases from previous breaches or employ rainbow tables to speed up the process.

8. Zero-Day Exploit

What it is: A zero-day exploit targets previously unknown vulnerabilities in software, hardware, or firmware that vendors haven't yet discovered or patched. The term "zero-day" refers to the fact that developers have had zero days to fix the flaw. These exploits are highly valuable and dangerous because no defense exists at the time of attack.

How it works programmatically: Attackers exploit unknown vulnerabilities in software before patches are available. They use techniques like buffer overflows (writing data beyond allocated memory), memory corruption, logic flaws, or input validation errors. Once discovered, attackers develop exploit code that triggers the vulnerability, potentially allowing them to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or bypass security controls before vendors can release protective updates.

9. Credential Stuffing

What it is: Credential stuffing is an automated cyberattack where attackers use large lists of stolen username and password pairs (obtained from previous data breaches) to gain unauthorized access to user accounts on different platforms. This attack exploits the common habit of password reuse across multiple services.

How it works programmatically: Attackers use leaked username/password pairs from previous breaches to automate login attempts across multiple services. Sophisticated bots test millions of credential combinations against various websites simultaneously, often using residential proxies to avoid detection. When successful matches are found, attackers gain access to accounts which can be used for fraud, identity theft, or sold on dark web markets.

10. Remote Code Execution (RCE)

What it is: Remote Code Execution is a critical security vulnerability that allows an attacker to run arbitrary code on a target system from a remote location. This is one of the most severe types of vulnerabilities because it gives attackers the ability to take complete control of affected systems, install malware, steal data, or use the compromised system as a launching point for further attacks.

How it works programmatically: Attackers exploit vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code on target systems. Common attack vectors include deserialization flaws (unsafe handling of serialized objects), command injection (inserting system commands into application inputs), file upload vulnerabilities (uploading executable files disguised as legitimate formats), or buffer overflows. Once exploited, attackers can run commands with the same privileges as the vulnerable application, potentially gaining full system control.