Characteristics of network services are exploited by the
attacker. Examples include the creation of infinite protocol loops which
result in denial of services (e.g., echo packets under IP), the use of
information packets under the Network News Transfer Protocol to map out a
remote site, and use of the Source Quench protocol element to reduce traffic
rates through select network paths.
Complexity: Analyzing protocol
specifications to find candidate attacks appears to be straightforward and
implementing many of these attacks has proven within the ability of an
average programmer. In general, this problem would appear to be as complex as
analyzing protocols which has been studied in depth before and shown to be
at least NP-complete for certain subclasses of protocol elements.
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