2

When a DHCP server receives a DHCP discover message it broadcasts the offer across the entire network. If a malicious machine joined a network and somehow began spamming DHCP discover messages, would the resulting high number of broadcasts from the DHCP server be able to bring the network down?

0

1 Answer 1

4

Any broadcast traffic or switch flooding of a sufficiently high volume could bring a network down. A switching loop is a good example of this very thing. A malware infection is another good example. I've seen malware infections that used ARP to effectively bring a network to it's knees due to the volume of ARP broadcasts generated by the malware.

1
  • 2
    I once saw a malfunctioning device (a network integrated time register) spamming DHCP discover that caused the network to go down. Same principle. May 7, 2015 at 19:03

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .