CEH Practice Question: Malware, Social Engineering and Network Attacks
Which TWO of the following are examples of application-layer DDoS attacks? (Select 2)
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse layer-based attacks, assuming any flood (like SYN or UDP) is application-layer, but CEH expects you to distinguish Layer 7 attacks (HTTP flood, Slowloris) from transport/network-layer attacks (SYN flood, UDP flood, Smurf).
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Slowloris
Slowloris is an application-layer DDoS attack that targets web servers by opening multiple HTTP connections and keeping them alive with partial requests, sending headers periodically to prevent timeout. It exploits the server's connection handling at Layer 7, exhausting the connection pool without requiring high bandwidth.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Slowloris
Why this is correct
Slowloris keeps many connections open slowly to exhaust server resources.
- ✗
SYN flood
Why it's wrong here
SYN flood is a protocol attack at the transport layer.
- ✗
Smurf attack
Why it's wrong here
Smurf is a network-layer amplification attack.
- ✗
UDP flood
Why it's wrong here
UDP flood is a volumetric attack at the transport layer.
- ✓
HTTP flood
Why this is correct
HTTP flood sends many HTTP requests to overwhelm the application.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CEH practice question is part of Courseiva's free EC-Council certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CEH exam.