Information Security Fundamentals, 2nd Edition

326  ◾  Information Security Fundamentals

Denial-of-Service Attacks

As an attacker, if you cannot get access to the target network, often the next best

thing that you can do is make sure that no one gets access to the network. Enter

the DoS attack. e DoS attack is designed to either overwhelm the target server’s

hardware resources or to overwhelm the target network’s telecommunication lines.

For years, there were a number of common “one-to-one” DoS attacks. In these

attacks, the hacker would launch an attack from his or her system against the target

server or network. Syn floods, Fin floods, Smurfs, and Fraggles are all examples

of these one-to-one attacks. Although all these attacks could still be successful on

some target networks today, most ...