What is a Ping of Death
Attack?
A command within the Internet Protocol network is called a "ping." It is used to check whether a host is accessible and online.
A
Ping of Death (PoD) attack is a type of Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack in which
the attacker sends a packet that is larger than the maximum permissible size,
resulting in the victim's computer halting or crashing. This type of DoS attack
usually targets and exploits older vulnerabilities that companies have
resolved.
How Does Ping of Death Attack work?
Is there another computer connected to the internet? Are you able to communicate with it? You can answer that query by sending a ping via the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP).
You ping the target machine, which acknowledges, and then you are connected. A death ping hijacks this operation. Here is the process of the Ping of Death attacks followed by attackers:
- Choose the victim: Attackers select a victim for the attack using the system's IP address.
- Fragments: Attackers divide massive payloads into parts so they can send them periodically.
- Release: In a succession of pings, all those payloads make their way to the victim. When the system tries to recompile the data, the pings surpass the byte limit, and the system crashes.
How to Prevent Ping of Death Attack?
Organizations can mitigate the risk of the Ping of Death attacks by limiting the usage of old technology and ensuring that their devices and software are always up to date. It is also possible to avoid the Ping of Death attack by blocking fragmented pings and boosting memory buffers, which lowers the chance of storage breaches. Here are some of the tips to prevent the Ping of Death attack:
- Update software: After discovering vulnerabilities in their products, developers continue to repair them. If you do not download the results of their efforts, your machine is vulnerable to hijacking. You should accept a patch whenever one becomes available.
- Use filtering technique: You can also employ several filtering strategies for absorption, such as Egress and Ingress.
- Filter traffic: Your System Administrator can prevent segmented pings from gaining access to any machine on the network. Standard pings can still be streamed publicly, but anything in segments will fail.
- Assessing reassembly: Check the final packet size limit.
- Buffer usage: With an overflow buffer, you can improve your ability to deal with huge packets. This allows you to cope with packets that are larger than the maximum size.
How can
InfosecTrain Help You?
InfosecTrain offers a broad
range of cyber security certification training courses that cover all of the
topics necessary to prevent Ping of Death attacks. So check out InfosecTrain’s
training courses for your learning.
