Which attack floods the DHCP server to exhaust IPs, causing a DoS?

Which attack floods the DHCP server to exhaust IPs, causing a DoS?

• A. DHCP attack
• B. Rogue DHCP Server Attack
• C. DHCP starvation attack
• D. ARP

Answer: (C)

Exhausting the pool of available IP addresses from a DHCP server is the essence of a DHCP starvation attack. The attacker floods the DHCP service with DHCPDISCOVER requests from many fake devices (often using spoofed or rapidly changing MAC addresses). Each new request prompts the server to issue an IP lease, quickly depleting the pool. Once all addresses are allocated, legitimate clients can’t obtain an IP via DHCP, effectively causing a Denial of Service on network connectivity for new devices. This is different from rogue DHCP servers, which introduce an unauthorized server that can misissue IPs or DNS settings, and from ARP, which is a protocol for mapping IPs to MAC addresses and does not directly cause DHCP exhaustion.

Exhausting the pool of available IP addresses from a DHCP server is the essence of a DHCP starvation attack. The attacker floods the DHCP service with DHCPDISCOVER requests from many fake devices (often using spoofed or rapidly changing MAC addresses). Each new request prompts the server to issue an IP lease, quickly depleting the pool. Once all addresses are allocated, legitimate clients can’t obtain an IP via DHCP, effectively causing a Denial of Service on network connectivity for new devices. This is different from rogue DHCP servers, which introduce an unauthorized server that can misissue IPs or DNS settings, and from ARP, which is a protocol for mapping IPs to MAC addresses and does not directly cause DHCP exhaustion.