A tool is just a tool: ettercap

I have a nifty list of console “applications” that I want to point out, mostly for my own reference in the future. But there’s one today that deserves special attention. Ironically though, I’m not going to tell you much about it.

ettercap is a networking tool, in the same way a hammer is a building tool, or a knife is a cooking tool.

And a tool is just a tool. ettercap is no more dangerous or malicious than a hammer or a knife: It’s just a tool.

But there are a lot of nifty things you can do with ettercap, to include not only looking for attached network nodes, like I did above, but also … interloping? … in their network transactions.

Beyond that I won’t get into too many details, mostly because I am naive and uninitiated when it comes to network security issues. Search the Internet for “ettercap howto” and you can find all kinds of trouble to get yourself into.

And I won’t mention how or why I found ettercap, except to say that it gave me the information I was looking for, and I am glad that I know about it now. Insert evil laugh here.