A large enterprise has been experiencing sporadic system crashes and instability, resulting in limited access to its web services. The security team suspects it could be a result of a Denial of…

Question

Options

• AUDP flood attack
• BSmurf attack
• CPulse wave attack
• DPing of Death attack

• A
  6% (1)
• B
  6% (1)
• D
  88% (14)

Explanation

Ping of Death Attack Explained

Option D is correct because a Ping of Death attack works by sending malformed or oversized ICMP (ping) packets that exceed the maximum allowed IP packet size of 65,535 bytes, causing target systems to crash, freeze, or become unstable - which perfectly matches the scenario describing packets exceeding prescribed size limits and resulting in system crashes.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (UDP Flood): Involves overwhelming a target with a large volume of UDP packets, but packet sizes remain within normal limits - it's about quantity, not oversized packets.
• B (Smurf Attack): Uses spoofed ICMP requests sent to broadcast addresses to amplify traffic toward a victim, but doesn't involve oversized packets.
• C (Pulse Wave Attack): Involves sending traffic in rhythmic, high-intensity bursts to exhaust network resources, again without the defining characteristic of malformed/oversized packets.

Memory Tip: Think of "Ping of Death" literally - it's a ping packet so abnormally large it kills (crashes) the system. The key phrase to remember for exam questions is "packet size exceeding limits" → always points to Ping of Death. If the question mentions volume of traffic without size abnormalities, think flood attacks instead.

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