Which of the following types of attacks is a type of Denial of Service attack in which spoofed ICMP messages are sent as an IP directed broadcast to flood a target host with ICMP traffic?

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Multiple Choice

Which of the following types of attacks is a type of Denial of Service attack in which spoofed ICMP messages are sent as an IP directed broadcast to flood a target host with ICMP traffic?

This question tests the Smurf attack, a Denial of Service method that uses spoofed ICMP echo requests sent to an IP directed broadcast address. The attacker fakes the victim’s IP as the source and sends the ping to a broadcast address, so every host on the network replies to the victim with ICMP echo responses. The flood of replies can overwhelm the victim’s host or network link, creating a denial of service. Why the other options don’t fit: Ping of Death involves oversized ICMP packets designed to crash a system, not broadcast amplification. Buffer Overflow is a software vulnerability exploit that overfills a memory buffer, not an ICMP flood using broadcast behavior. Fraggle Attack is similar in concept but uses UDP echo requests to a broadcast address, not ICMP, so it doesn’t match the scenario described.

This question tests the Smurf attack, a Denial of Service method that uses spoofed ICMP echo requests sent to an IP directed broadcast address. The attacker fakes the victim’s IP as the source and sends the ping to a broadcast address, so every host on the network replies to the victim with ICMP echo responses. The flood of replies can overwhelm the victim’s host or network link, creating a denial of service.

Why the other options don’t fit: Ping of Death involves oversized ICMP packets designed to crash a system, not broadcast amplification. Buffer Overflow is a software vulnerability exploit that overfills a memory buffer, not an ICMP flood using broadcast behavior. Fraggle Attack is similar in concept but uses UDP echo requests to a broadcast address, not ICMP, so it doesn’t match the scenario described.

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