Technically speaking, the Ping of Death attack involved sending IP packets of a size greater than 65,535 bytes to the target computer. IP packets of this size are illegal, but applications can be built that are capable of creating them. Carefully programmed operating systems could detect and safely handle illegal IP packets, but some failed to do this. ICMP ping utilities often included large-packet capability and became the namesake of the problem, although UDP and other IP-based protocols also could transport Ping of Death.
Operating system vendors quickly devised patches to avoid the Ping of Death. Still, many Web sites today block ICMP ping messages at their firewalls to avoid similar denial of service attacks. A ping of death (abbreviated "POD") is a type of attack on a computer that involves sending a malformed or otherwise malicious ping to a computer. A ping is normally 56 bytes in size (or 84 bytes when IP header is considered); historically, many computer systems could not handle a ping packet larger than the maximum IPv4 packet size, which is 65,535 bytes. Sending a ping of this size could crash the target computer.
Operating system vendors quickly devised patches to avoid the Ping of Death. Still, many Web sites today block ICMP ping messages at their firewalls to avoid similar denial of service attacks. A ping of death (abbreviated "POD") is a type of attack on a computer that involves sending a malformed or otherwise malicious ping to a computer. A ping is normally 56 bytes in size (or 84 bytes when IP header is considered); historically, many computer systems could not handle a ping packet larger than the maximum IPv4 packet size, which is 65,535 bytes. Sending a ping of this size could crash the target computer.
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