A company's web server suddenly experiences an overwhelming amount of traffic, causing legitimate users to be unable to access the website. Investigation reveals that the traffic surge is due to a flood of network requests with spoofed IP addresses, indicating a possible DDoS attack. Which type of DDoS attack is most likely occurring if the attack traffic is magnified by the attackers using public network services without the need for a botnet?
An amplified DDoS attack exploits open public network services to enlarge the volume of traffic aimed at a victim. The attacker sends small requests with a spoofed source IP so that the much larger replies are redirected to the victim, dramatically increasing the total traffic without requiring a botnet. Reflected attacks also rely on spoofed IP addresses, but amplification is not necessarily their defining trait. A SYN flood overwhelms the target with half-open TCP handshakes and does not involve amplification, while a ping flood simply sends a high rate of ICMP Echo requests without using intermediary services for amplification.
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How does an amplified DDoS attack work?
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What is the role of spoofed IP addresses in DDoS attacks?
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How is an amplified DDoS attack different from a reflected DDoS attack?