GCIA · Question #34
Adam, a malicious hacker purposely sends fragmented ICMP packets to a remote target. The total size of this ICMP packet once reconstructed is over 65,536 bytes. On the basis of above information, whic
The correct answer is D. Ping of death attack. A Ping of Death attack sends fragmented ICMP packets that reconstruct to a size exceeding the 65,535-byte IP maximum, causing buffer overflows or crashes on the target.
Question
Adam, a malicious hacker purposely sends fragmented ICMP packets to a remote target. The total size of this ICMP packet once reconstructed is over 65,536 bytes. On the basis of above information, which of the following types of attack is Adam attempting to perform?
Options
- AFraggle attack
- BSYN Flood attack
- CLand attack
- DPing of death attack
How the community answered
(49 responses)- A2% (1)
- B14% (7)
- C6% (3)
- D78% (38)
Why each option
A Ping of Death attack sends fragmented ICMP packets that reconstruct to a size exceeding the 65,535-byte IP maximum, causing buffer overflows or crashes on the target.
A Fraggle attack is a UDP-based amplification attack that spoofs the victim's IP address and sends UDP echo packets to network broadcast addresses, not oversized fragmented ICMP packets.
A SYN Flood attack exploits the TCP three-way handshake by sending large volumes of SYN packets without completing connections to exhaust server resources, and does not involve ICMP or oversized packet fragments.
A Land attack sends a TCP SYN packet where the source and destination IP address and port are set to the same value, causing the target to loop on itself, and has nothing to do with oversized ICMP packet reassembly.
The Ping of Death attack exploits the IP protocol maximum packet size of 65,535 bytes by deliberately crafting fragmented ICMP packets that, once reassembled by the target host, exceed this limit and overflow memory buffers. The specific indicators in the question - fragmented ICMP packets and a reconstructed size over 65,536 bytes - are the precise technical signature of this attack, distinguishing it from all other denial-of-service variants.
Concept tested: Ping of Death ICMP fragmentation overflow attack
Source: https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/tips/ST04-015
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