ZyAIR G-2000 Plus User’s Guide

14.4.2 Types of DoS Attacks

There are four types of DoS attacks:

1Those that exploit bugs in a TCP/IP implementation.

2Those that exploit weaknesses in the TCP/IP specification.

3Brute-force attacks that flood a network with useless data.

4IP Spoofing.

•"Ping of Death" and "Teardrop" attacks exploit bugs in the TCP/IP implementations of various computer and host systems.

aPing of Death uses a "ping" utility to create an IP packet that exceeds the maximum 65,536 bytes of data allowed by the IP specification. The oversize packet is then sent to an unsuspecting system. Systems may crash, hang or reboot.

bTeardrop attack exploits weaknesses in the reassembly of IP packet fragments. As data is transmitted through a network, IP packets are often broken up into smaller chunks. Each fragment looks like the original IP packet except that it contains an offset field that says, for instance, "This fragment is carrying bytes 200 through 400 of the original (non fragmented) IP packet." The Teardrop program creates a series of IP fragments with overlapping offset fields. When these fragments are reassembled at the destination, some systems will crash, hang, or reboot.

•Weaknesses in the TCP/IP specification leave it open to "SYN Flood" and "LAND" attacks. These attacks are executed during the handshake that initiates a communication session between two applications.

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Chapter 14 Firewalls