What type of attack involves IP spoofing, ICMP ECHO and a bounce site?

The correct answer is D. Smurf attack. Smurf attack combines all three elements in the question: the attacker spoofs the victim's IP address (IP spoofing), sends ICMP ECHO (ping) requests to a network broadcast address (the "bounce site"), and every host on that network replies to the victim - flooding it with traffic

Submitted by suresh_in· Apr 18, 2026Network and Communications Security

Question

What type of attack involves IP spoofing, ICMP ECHO and a bounce site?

Options

AIP spoofing attack
BTeardrop attack
CSYN attack
DSmurf attack

How the community answered

(38 responses)

B
3% (1)
C
3% (1)
D
95% (36)

Explanation

Smurf attack combines all three elements in the question: the attacker spoofs the victim's IP address (IP spoofing), sends ICMP ECHO (ping) requests to a network broadcast address (the "bounce site"), and every host on that network replies to the victim - flooding it with traffic.

Why the distractors are wrong:

A (IP spoofing attack) - IP spoofing is a technique used in many attacks, not an attack type that specifically involves ICMP and a bounce site.
B (Teardrop attack) - Teardrop sends malformed, overlapping IP fragments to crash the target's TCP/IP stack; no bounce site or ICMP flood involved.
C (SYN attack) - A SYN flood exploits the TCP three-way handshake by sending masses of SYN packets without completing the connection; again, no bounce amplification via ICMP.

Memory tip: Think Smurf = Spoof + Send-to-broadcast - the attacker hides behind a spoofed address and uses a network as an amplifier (bounce site), just like the cartoon character causing outsized chaos with minimal effort.

Topics

#Smurf Attack#Denial of Service (DoS)#IP Spoofing#ICMP

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