Question

What kind of information can a hacker get from a good packet sniffer program?

How could packet sniffing be used in a good way or positive benefits?

Answer 1

Network Packer sniffer programs are mainly used by Hackers, what kind of information or data can be captured depends on the network structure. a packet sniffer can capture all the packets sent in the network. packets contain information about source address, a destination address. so

that can be depend on the secure or insecure network for ex :  

in Http, everything can visible to the attacker. usernames, passwords accounts details whatever they can enter all of them can be captured.

the information get from a good packet sniffer

1.devices or users connected to the network

2.protocols versions

3.source address

4.destination address

5.more details about the device connected to the network like device vendors, models

Packets sniffers also used by the whitehats or security experts to analyse the traffic.to avoid any malicious activities in the network. They are useful in defending our network by dropping suspicious packets. security experts always monitor on the network capture the packets and analyze them frequently using great opensource tools like Wireshark