An
on-path attack (CompTIA's current term for MITM) positions the attacker between communicating parties to intercept and optionally modify traffic.
CompTIA Security+ now uses "on-path" instead of "man-in-the-middle." Same concept — same defenses: TLS/HTTPS (authenticates server), VPN (encrypts tunnel), certificate pinning (prevents rogue CA attacks), HSTS (prevents SSL stripping).