WPAD Domain Exploitation: Understanding Man-in-the-Middle Attacks Through DNS

Explore a critical cybersecurity presentation from DEF CON 32 that reveals how purchasing a single domain name 'wpad.tld' can compromise entire country-level domains and lead to massive security breaches. Learn about extensive research conducted over a year across eight different wpad.tld domains, resulting in over 1 billion DNS requests and 600+ GB of Apache log data containing leaked client information. Discover the technical details behind this 25+ year-old vulnerability that allows attackers to create man-in-the-middle setups, bypass encryption, manipulate content, and potentially distribute malicious code to hundreds of thousands of internet clients without their knowledge. Understand the mechanisms through which clients are unknowingly tricked into this security trap and the significant implications for network security.