AREA NETWORKS

The rapid expansion of local area networks (LANs) has brought about a significant increase in security vulnerabilities, making traditional firewalls insufficient against sophisticated internal and external threats. This project focuses on the Design and Implementation of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) specifically engineered for LAN environments using packet sniffing techniques. The primary objective of this study is to develop a robust system capable of monitoring network traffic in real-time, identifying malicious patterns, and alerting administrators to potential security breaches. The methodology involves the use of raw socket programming or specialized libraries to capture data packets as they traverse the network interface. By analyzing these packets at the protocol level (TCP/IP), the system performs Signature-Based Detection to match traffic against known attack patterns and Anomaly-Based Detection to identify deviations from normal network behavior. The system was tested across various attack scenarios, including Denial of Service (DoS), unauthorized port scanning, and packet injection. Results from the implementation demonstrate that the IDS effectively captures and decodes packets with minimal latency, providing a high detection rate for common network-layer attacks. The study concludes that integrating packet sniffing into a localized IDS offers an essential layer of "defense-in-depth," providing network administrators with the visibility needed to maintain data integrity and availability. Recommendations include the integration of machine learning algorithms to improve the system's ability to detect zero-day vulnerabilities and the implementation of automated response protocols to mitigate threats instantly.