What is the nature of pharming attacks?

Pharming attacks involve manipulating the Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure to redirect users from legitimate websites to fraudulent ones without their knowledge. This technique undermines the normal DNS resolution process, which is crucial for converting human-readable domain names into IP addresses that computers use to identify each other on the network. By altering DNS entries, attackers can ensure that users seeking a legitimate site are instead guided to a malicious site that appears similar.

Understanding the context of pharming is essential; it's a sophisticated kind of cyber threat that does not require users to engage with content like phishing emails or click on malicious links, which aligns with why it falls outside the definitions of options related to direct user engagement or communication methods like emails. Additionally, it operates independently of physical access to devices, as the attack vector relies on network manipulation rather than direct interaction with the hardware.