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CISSP · Question #439

Which layer of the Open systems Interconnection (OSI) model is being targeted in the event of a Synchronization (SYN) flood attack?

The correct answer is B. Transport. A Synchronization (SYN) flood attack is a type of denial-of-service (DoS) attack that exploits the three-way handshake mechanism of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which operates at the transport layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. In a SYN flood attac

Submitted by tom_us· Mar 5, 2026Communication and Network Security

Question

Which layer of the Open systems Interconnection (OSI) model is being targeted in the event of a Synchronization (SYN) flood attack?

Options

  • ASession
  • BTransport
  • CNetwork
  • DPresentation

How the community answered

(54 responses)
  • A
    7% (4)
  • B
    85% (46)
  • C
    6% (3)
  • D
    2% (1)

Explanation

A Synchronization (SYN) flood attack is a type of denial-of-service (DoS) attack that exploits the three-way handshake mechanism of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which operates at the transport layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. In a SYN flood attack, the attacker sends a large number of SYN packets to the target server, but does not respond to the SYN-ACK packets sent by the server. This causes the server to exhaust its resources and become unable to accept legitimate requests. The session, network, and presentation layers of the OSI model are not directly involved in this attack.

Topics

#SYN flood#OSI model#Transport layer#DoS attack

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