Which DDoS category combines volumetric, protocol, and application-layer attacks to disrupt services?

Which DDoS category combines volumetric, protocol, and application-layer attacks to disrupt services?

• A. Distributed Reflection DoS (DRDoS) Attack
• B. Peer-to-peer Attack
• C. Multi-vector DDoS Attacks
• D. Slowloris Attacks

Answer: (C)

The idea being tested is how a DDoS campaign can overwhelm a service by using multiple attack methods across different layers at once. Volumetric floods aim to saturate the network bandwidth, protocol attacks exhaust server resources by abusing how the network stack handles connections and state, and application-layer floods target the application itself with requests that consume CPU, memory, or database resources. When a single campaign employs all three kinds of techniques together, it’s called multi-vector DDoS attacks. This approach is harder to defend against because defenses must recognize and mitigate several distinct patterns happening simultaneously, across network, transport, and application layers. The other options describe specific, single-method tactics or architectures—reflection-based amplification, P2P-based botnets, or a particular application-layer exploit like Slowloris—rather than the combined, multi-vector approach.

The idea being tested is how a DDoS campaign can overwhelm a service by using multiple attack methods across different layers at once. Volumetric floods aim to saturate the network bandwidth, protocol attacks exhaust server resources by abusing how the network stack handles connections and state, and application-layer floods target the application itself with requests that consume CPU, memory, or database resources. When a single campaign employs all three kinds of techniques together, it’s called multi-vector DDoS attacks. This approach is harder to defend against because defenses must recognize and mitigate several distinct patterns happening simultaneously, across network, transport, and application layers. The other options describe specific, single-method tactics or architectures—reflection-based amplification, P2P-based botnets, or a particular application-layer exploit like Slowloris—rather than the combined, multi-vector approach.