Which of the following are traffic-based attacks? (Multiple choice)

Question

Options

• ADoS attack
• BMalformed message attack
• CScanning and snooping attacks
• DDDoS attack

• A
  71% (27)
• B
  8% (3)
• C
  21% (8)

Explanation

DoS and DDoS attacks are classified as traffic-based attacks because they weaponize volume - they flood a target with an overwhelming amount of network traffic to exhaust resources and deny service to legitimate users. DDoS simply scales this up using many distributed sources simultaneously.

Why B is wrong: Malformed message attacks exploit parsing vulnerabilities by crafting intentionally invalid or malicious packet data - the attack vector is the content of the message, not traffic volume.

Why C is wrong: Scanning and snooping are reconnaissance techniques - scanning probes networks to discover hosts/services, while snooping intercepts traffic to gather information. These are intelligence-gathering activities, not traffic-flooding attacks.

Memory tip: Think "traffic-based = the traffic itself is the weapon." If the attack drowns the target in packets (DoS/DDoS), it's traffic-based. If the attack uses crafted packets or observes packets, it belongs to a different category.

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