What Is a Ping Flood Attack?

A ping flood attack, aka ping of death, is a denial-of-service (DoS) attack where a malicious actor attempts to render a network device or service unavailable to legitimate traffic by overwhelming it with ICMP data packets. Ping flood attacks may be a DoS attack mounted by a single device or by a botnet in a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

By inundating a server, router, or network with a flood of requests, a ping ICMP flood DDoS attack can cause the performance of a device to become sluggish or to stop altogether, resulting in a denial of service to legitimate users and traffic. When a ping flood attack targets business-critical systems, the resulting downtime can lead to losses of productivity, revenue, customers, and reputation. Ping floods may also allow attackers to identify vulnerable systems within a network, gathering information that can be used to launch more targeted attacks.

A ping request is a diagnostic tool that’s used with the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) to test the connectivity between two machines. One device sends a ping echo request packet to another, which responds with an echo-reply message. The round-trip time (RTT) for this exchange reveals the speed of the network connection between the devices.

In an ICMP ping flood attack, hackers seek to overload a targeted system by sending multiple ping echo request packets to a targeted system. Each ICMP request requires a response that consumes bandwidth as well as some of the targeted server’s resources. As the number of ping echo requests increase, the targeted device becomes exhausted and slows down or crashes, making it unavailable for normal traffic and legitimate requests. There are other methods in which attackers leverage the ICMP protocol to misuse or abuse systems, but echo-reply is the most common.

• Targeted local disclosed. This ping flood attack targets a specific computer on a local network, using the specific IP address of the destination device.
• Router disclosed. This type of attack targets routers to disrupt communications between computers on a network. Attackers must have the internal IP address of the local router or switch.
• Blind ping. This attack uses an external program to discover the IP address of a target computer router before launching the attack.

Ping flood attacks can severely disrupt an organization’s online network operations, compromising the security of the cloud or local infrastructure, and making services unavailable to legitimate users. The resulting service disruptions and outages can significantly impact businesses, particularly those that rely heavily on online services. Attackers often use spoofed IP addresses and botnets to amplify the attack’s impact, making it harder to mitigate.

Organizations can protect their operations using various mitigation techniques, such as traffic filtering, rate limiting, and anomaly detection systems. Human and/or AI-driven threat systems can detect and respond to threats in real time, and integrated endpoint and cloud security platforms offer comprehensive protection against ICMP flood attacks and other cyberthreats.

Industries most at risk

Certain industries face a higher risk of being targeted by DDoS attacks, including ping flood attacks. Here are a few examples:

• Banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI): These financial sectors are often targeted due to the sensitive nature of the data they handle and the high reliance on online services. A successful attack could disrupt critical financial operations and compromise sensitive customer data. The BFSI sector is the most targeted sector for ping flood attacks.
• Education sector: This sector experiences a high number of attacks, particularly at the start of new school terms. Educational institutions’ increasing reliance on online platforms for learning and administration makes them a prime target.
• Telecommunications: The telecommunications industry is often targeted due to its critical role in providing internet services. Disruptions in this sector can have widespread effects, impacting multiple businesses and individuals who rely on their services.
• Recreation sector and ISP/hosting: These sectors also face significant risk due to their high visibility and customer base. A successful attack could disrupt services for a large number of users and have a substantial impact on businesses.

Cybersecurity teams can take several steps to mitigate a ping ICMP flood attack.

• Disabling ICMP functionality. Network administrators can disable the ICMP functionality of a targeted device by setting a firewall to block the device’s ability to send and receive any requests using the ICMP. This action will unfortunately also make the device unresponsive to other legitimate ping requests, traceroute requests, and network activities, limiting administrators’ ability to diagnose service issues.
• Rate limiting. Security teams can also mitigate ping flood attacks by setting rate limits for processing incoming ICMP messages or limiting the allowed size of the ping requests.
• Intrusion detection. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) can monitor network traffic and identify potential attacks in real time.
• Monitoring of network traffic. Continuously monitoring and analyzing network traffic enables security teams to identify normal traffic patterns as well as anomalies that may indicate attacks such as a ping flood.
• DDoS mitigation deployment. A comprehensive DDoS protection service can help defend against ping flood attacks and other DDoS attacks or cyberattacks by filtering out malicious traffic before it reaches a network.