Ethical Hacking Essentials Practice Test

Which attack attempts to crash or destabilize a system by sending malformed or oversized packets?

1. SYN Flood Attack

2. Ping of Death

3. Fragmentation Attack

4. Permanent Denial-of-Service Attack

The correct answer is: Ping of Death

The Ping of Death attack is characterized by sending oversized packets to a target system, specifically using Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request packets. In the early days of networking, many systems could not properly handle packets larger than the maximum transmission unit, leading to crashes or system instability when these oversized packets were processed. The Ping of Death exploits this vulnerability by sending malicious or malformed packets that overwhelm the target system’s ability to handle incoming data, thereby causing it to crash or become unstable. Understanding the mechanics of the Ping of Death is critical for recognizing how it takes advantage of protocol weaknesses and helps in implementing necessary defenses against such attacks. This illustrates the importance of validating and filtering incoming packets in network security to safeguard against potential disruptions caused by malformed data.