In which of the following attacks do computers act as zombies and work together to send out
bogus messages, thereby increasing the amount of phony traffic?
A.
Smurf attack
B.
Buffer-overflow attack
C.
DDoS attack
D.
Bonk attack
Explanation:
In the distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack, an attacker uses multiple computers throughout
the network that it has previously infected. Such computers act as zombies and work together to
send out bogus messages, thereby increasing the amount of phony traffic. The major advantages
to an attacker of using a distributed denial-of-service attack are that multiple machines can
generate more attack traffic than one machine, multiple attack machines are harder to turn off than
one attack machine, and that the behavior of each attack machine can be stealthier, making it
harder to track down and shut down. TFN, TRIN00, etc. are tools used for the DDoS attack.
Answer option A is incorrect. A Smurf attack is a type of attack that uses third-party intermediaries
to defend against, and get back to the originating system. In a Smurf attack, a false ping packet is
forwarded by the originating system. The broadcast address of the third-party network is the
packet’s destination. Hence, each machine on the third-party network has a copy of the ping
request. The victim system is the originator. The originator rapidly forwards a large number ofthese requests via different intermediary networks. The victim gets overwhelmed by these large
number of requests.
Answer option B is incorrect. A buffer-overflow attack is performed when a hacker fills a field,
typically an address bar, with more characters than it can accommodate. The excess characters
can be run as executable code, effectively giving the hacker control of the computer and overriding
any security measures set. There are two main types of buffer overflow attacks:
stack-based buffer overflow attack:
Stack-based buffer overflow attack uses a memory object known as a stack. The hacker develops
the code which reserves a specific amount of space for the stack. If the input of user is longer than
the amount of space reserved for it within the stack, then the stack will overflow.
heap-based buffer overflow attack:
Heap-based overflow attack floods the memory space reserved for the programs.
Answer option D is incorrect. Bonk attack is a variant of the teardrop attack that affects mostly
Windows computers by sending corrupt UDP packets to DNS port 53. It is a type of denial-ofservice (DoS) attack. A bonk attack manipulates a fragment offset field in TCP/IP packets. This
field tells a computer how to reconstruct a packet that was fragmented, because it is difficult to
transmit big packets. A bonk attack causes the target computer to reassemble a packet that is too
big to be reassembled and causes the target computer to crash.