Information, Computer and Network Security Terms Glossary and Dictionary

Ping of Death

Ping of Death is an attack that sends an improperly large ICMP echo request packet (a "ping") with the intent of overflowing the input buffers of the destination machine and causing it to crash. Technically speaking, the Ping of Death attack involves sending IP packets of a size greater than 65,535 bytes to the target computer. IP packets of this size are illegal, but applications can be built that are capable of creating them. Carefully programmed operating systems could detect and safely handle illegal IP packets, but some fail to do this. ICMP ping utilities often include large-packet capability and become the namesake of the problem, although UDP and other IP-based protocols also could transport Ping of Death.

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Ping of Death