During network traffic monitoring, a security administrator observes high volumes of unicast traffic being unexpectedly flooded to every physical port on a managed Layer 2 Ethernet switch. Packet analysis reveals that a single connected workstation is transmitting thousands of Ethernet frames per second, each using a unique, randomized source MAC address. As a result, the switch's Content Addressable Memory (CAM) table has become completely full, forcing the switch to broadcast incoming traffic across all ports in the broadcast domain. Which of the following network attacks is indicated by these observed behaviors?
- MAC table overflowCevap
- BARP poisoning
- CVLAN hopping via switch spoofing
- DRogue DHCP server deployment
Cevap
The attack indicated by these indicators is a MAC table overflow attack.
The correct answer is MAC table overflow. Switches maintain a Content Addressable Memory (CAM) table to map MAC addresses to physical ports. When an attacker floods the network with frames containing randomized source MAC addresses, the CAM table quickly fills up. Once full, the switch can no longer learn new MAC mappings and enters a fail-open state, broadcasting incoming unicast frames out of all ports within the VLAN (acting like a hub), allowing an attacker to intercept traffic.
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Anahtar Kavram
MAC Table Overflow (MAC Flooding) Indicators