Overview

DoS attacks achieve their goal by flooding the target with traffic or sending it information that triggers a crash. While they don't typically result in data theft, they can cause significant disruption and financial loss.

Types of DoS

  • Buffer Overflow Attacks: Sending more data than a system can handle.
  • ICMP Flood (Ping Flood): Overwhelming a target with echo request packets.
  • SYN Flood: Exploiting the TCP handshake process to consume server resources.

Prevention

  • Firewalls and Routers: Filtering out malicious traffic.
  • Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS): Detecting and blocking attack patterns.
  • Resource Limits: Configuring systems to handle only a certain amount of traffic.

Related Terms