A downgrade attack is best described as which action?

• A. Downgrade attack
• B. Forcing weaker cryptographic protocols
• C. Reusing captured data to gain access
• D. Exploiting physical implementation weaknesses

Answer: (B)

Downgrade attacks hinge on forcing the parties in a security handshake to agree on weaker cryptographic protections than they would otherwise use. During a handshake, the client and server negotiate protocol versions and cipher suites. An attacker on the path can intercept or tamper with those negotiations, making the endpoint think that only older, less secure options are available or that a fallback to a legacy protocol is required. Once the connection proceeds with weaker protections, the attacker has a much easier time decrypting, altering, or tampering with the data. This isn’t about replaying captured data or exploiting a flaw in the implementation itself; it’s about manipulating the negotiation to reduce the security level of the connection.