ISC2 CC Network Security Practice Question
During a DDoS attack, a company's web server is overwhelmed with a high volume of SYN packets from spoofed IP addresses, never completing the TCP handshake. Which type of attack is this?
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
✓
SYN flood
A SYN flood sends many SYN packets to exhaust server resources by leaving half-open connections.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
ICMP flood
Why it's wrong here
ICMP flood uses ping requests, not TCP SYN.
- ✗
UDP flood
Why it's wrong here
UDP flood sends UDP packets to random ports.
- ✗
Amplification attack
Why it's wrong here
Amplification uses reflection with large responses (e.g., DNS amplification).
- ✓
SYN flood
Why this is correct
Correct. SYN flood exploits the TCP handshake.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Network Security Foundations
Key term
Distributed Denial-of-service
A cyberattack where many compromised computers flood a target system with traffic, making it unavailable to legitimate users.
Key term
TCP
TCP is a connection-oriented transport layer protocol that ensures reliable, ordered, and error-checked delivery of data between applications over IP networks.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CC practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CC exam.