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Next Article:
What is a Permanent DoS (PDoS) Attack?
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Ping Flood Attack

Last Updated : 01 May, 2025
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A Ping Flood Attack, or ICMP Attack (Internet Control Message Protocol Attack), is a type of offensive cyberattack utilized to attack the targeted device—computer, server, or network—with a flood of false requests. It is a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, as it is intended to disrupt normal operations, making your system unusable by good users.

Ping Flood Attack Structure
Ping Flood Attack

Visualize it as a virtual traffic congestion that blocks real traffic from getting through. With work-from-home, IoT sensors, and cloud computing on the trend in 2025, Ping Flood Attacks are becoming more of a cybersecurity issue for home users, too, and enterprise networks.

Why It’s Dangerous

  • Sends You Offline: Makes your website, game server, or business platform go down, frustrating customers or users.
  • Hides Bigger Attacks: The flood can serve as a cover for hackers to breach malware or steal data.
  • Automated Trouble: The attacks typically come from bot servers—hijacked computers belonging to hackers—that ping automatically, which makes them hard to block.
  • Overwhelms Legit Requests: Legitimate users (like customers trying to visit your site) get lost in the ocean of spurious pings.

How Ping Flood Attack Works

It's similar to knowing how a someone jams your phone with fake calls now that you know the trick you can put a stop to it. Before this we need to understand that what is ping:

  • A ping is a small network message sent via the ICMP protocol to determine whether a device (such as a web server or router) is reachable and how quickly it responds.
  • It’s like knocking on a neighbor’s door to see if they’re home. The neighbor replies with an ICMP echo reply, saying, “Yep, I’m here!”
  • Pings are essential for network diagnostics, used by IT pros to troubleshoot connectivity issues, like checking if a website is down.
  • Example: To send pings to Google's server and display the response time when you enter ping google.com in a Linux terminal.

Now by the use this attacker can:

  • In a Ping Flood Attack, hackers send thousands—or even millions—of ICMP echo requests to a target's IP address in a short time.
  • This is achieved with botnets (compromised computers or IoT objects such as intelligent cameras) or malicious scripts that send it automatically.
  • The flood is similar to a someone ordering endless delivery trucks to your store, filling the street so actual customers can't pass.
  • Amplification Risk: Attackers may use misconfigured servers to amplify the flood, where one ping causes a massive response, flooding the target even further.
  • Example: A game server could receive 100,000 pings per second, rendering it impossible for players to join.

If once the attack is start than the results are:

  • The target machine becomes so engaged in responding to fake ping requests that it is unable to perform real work, such as, Serving web pages for a website, processing online transactions for a business, processing game data for a multiplayer server.
  • The system slows down, crashes, or becomes unreachable, resulting in a Denial of Service.
  • In extreme cases, the target system's network bandwidth is utilized up, impacting other devices on the same network.
  • Example : A small company server victim to a Ping Flood could go out of commission, halting e-mail services and customer orders for hours

Real-Life Ping Flood Attack

Recent Ping Flood Attack cases showing their impact on businesses, gamers, and more.

1. The Gaming Championship Crash

In mid-2024 example is that a well-liked online gaming server hosting an esports tournament for a battle-royale game was attacked by a Ping Flood Attack. Attackers, who were probably fellow players or cyber extortionists, used a 50,000-strong hijacked smart device botnet (i.e., IoT cameras and thermostats) to overwhelm the server with ICMP ping requests. The server, assuming a normal load, was attacked in mere minutes, creating a 6-hour outage. Fans couldn't watch, players were disconnected, and the real-time broadcast of the event failed, costing organizers $200,000 in sponsor and refund-ticket revenue.

The Impact:

  • Player Anger: There were thousands of angry players posting on social media, using top trending hashtags #GameCrash2024.
  • Reputation Hit: The gaming company's reputation was down, and a number of players defected to other competing platforms.
  • Financial Loss: Aside from revenue, the company spent thousands of dollars paying IT experts to get back online.
  • Hidden Threat: The Ping Flood masked a failed attempt to install ransomware, which was caught just in.

The company worked with Cloudflare, a cloud security company, to block bad ping requests and divert traffic. They also enhanced their network monitoring to identify botnet behavior in advance, getting the server up again within hours.

2. The Small Business Blackout

Late in 2024, a small online store that sold handmade crafts experienced a Ping Flood Attack during the Christmas shopping season. Competitors or hacktivists probably conducted the attack using a DDoS tool (an amplified Ping Flood) and sent millions of ICMP echo requests to the web server of the store. The website was offline for 12 hours, exactly when customers were searching for Christmas presents. The breach cost the owner $15,000 in lost business, and an additional $5,000 in customer refunds and marketing to restore trust.

The Impact:

  • Sales Crash: Consumers deserted the site, with some leaving negative reviews on e-commerce sites.
  • Trust Loss: Frequent customers feared data loss, although no information was taken.
  • Emotional Impact: The owner, who was a sole trader, was stressed, as the breach occurred during their peak time.
  • Competitor Gain: Competing stores moved in, taking the missed traffic with holiday promotions.

The owner contacted their web hosting provider, who enabled DDoS protection to filter out fake pings. They also added a content delivery network (CDN) to spread traffic across multiple servers, reducing the attack’s impact. A quick social media post apologized and offered discounts, helping win back some customers.

Preventions from Ping Flood Attack

Proper awareness about ping flood attacks will help in timely action to prevent damage to computers/servers. Below are the ways of Ping Flood (Internet Control Message Protocol) Attacks:

  1. Monitor the ICMP pings on the target device.
  2. If there are sudden peaks in requests or any suspicious activity sensed, report them immediately and take proper actions to detect the root cause.
  3. A proper firewall ensures that harmful requests are blocked from entering the system and causing any harm to the computer/ server.
  4. Limit the number of ICMP messages and ping requests.
  5. Unnecessary pings and message requests shouldn't be detected, as they may make the server/ computer unresponsive. Take care that ICMP messages/ requests are limited to prevent failure.
  6. Turn on your computer’s built-in firewall (most systems, like Linux or Windows, have one).
  7. For servers, use a network firewall to filter incoming traffic.
  8. Make sure the firewall blocks unwanted ICMP ping requests while letting real ones through (like for network checks).
  9. Adjust your server settings to allow only a small number of pings per second (your IT team can help).
  10. Block unnecessary ping requests that aren’t needed for normal network checks.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity is like a trusty shield for your digital life, keeping hackers and cyberattacks like Ping Flood Attacks at bay in 2025. A Ping Flood Attack tries to drown your computer or server with fake ping requests


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What is a Permanent DoS (PDoS) Attack?

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Article Tags :
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  • Ethical Hacking - Network Attacks

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    Sniffing

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    Active Sniffing Attacks in Ethical Hacking can lead to using the intercepted data for malicious purposes. The most common use of sniffing is to steal passwords, credit card numbers, and other sensitive data. Sniffers are software programs that let you intercept network traffic in a convert way witho
    6 min read
    What is Protocol Analyzer?
    The network protocol is a set of rules that regulates the communication and exchange of data over the internet or network. Both the sender and receiver should follow the same protocols in order to communicate and exchange the data. Whenever we access a website or exchange some data with another devi
    3 min read
    What is MAC Spoofing Attack?
    MAC Spoofing is a type of attack used to exploit flaws in the authentication mechanism implemented by wired and wireless networking hardware. In layman’s terms, MAC spoofing is when someone or something intercepts, manipulate or otherwise tampers with the control messages exchanged between a network
    5 min read
    How to Prevent MAC Flooding?
    A flood of MAC addresses is a serious concern for ethical hackers because it can leave your system vulnerable to attack. In order to prevent this from happening, consider some of the following precautions: Use secure passwords.Install and use antivirus software.Update your operating system on a regu
    4 min read
    What is Port Stealing?
    Cyber security is the security of the web and related services related to the web. Cyber security is the way to prevent many cyber attacks from taking place. Cyber security ensures that awareness of the cyber-attacks along with the different forms of cyber attacks are well-known to people so that th
    3 min read
    Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
    Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is a network protocol used to automate the process of assigning IP addresses and other network configuration parameters to devices (such as computers, smartphones, and printers) on a network. Instead of manually configuring each device with an IP address, DHCP all
    14 min read
    DHCP Starvation Attack
    DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is used to assign IP addresses to machines within any network automatically. It is also known as zeroconf protocol, as network administrators don't need to assign IP addresses to machines manually. To assign IP addresses, DHCP makes use of DORA packets whic
    4 min read
    What is Rogue DHCP Server Attack?
    Rogue DHCP server attacks are gaining popularity but can be mitigated. The hacker sets up a rogue DHCP server and creates an IP address conflict by broadcasting a duplicate IP address. Hackers infiltrate a network by attacking the wireless router, which they do with ARP poisoning in order to inject
    4 min read
    What is ARP Spoofing Attack?
    Spoofing is a type of attack in which hackers gain access to the victim's system by gaining the trust of the victim (target user) to spread the malicious code of the malware and steal data such as passwords and PINs stored in the system.In Spoofing, psychologically manipulating the victim is the mai
    3 min read
    How to Prevent DNS Poisoning and Spoofing?
    The domain name system, or DNS, is a naming system for computers, services, and other internet resources that is hierarchical in nature. It's essentially the internet's phone book. Each domain name has a corresponding set of ten or so numbers that make up the domain name's IP address. Simple, user-f
    6 min read
    DNS Spoofing or DNS Cache poisoning
    Prerequisite - Domain Name Server Before Discussing DNS Spoofing, First, discuss what is DNS.A Domain Name System (DNS) converts a human-readable name (such as www.geeksforgeeks.org) to a numeric IP address. The DNS system responds to one or more IP-address by which your computer connects to a websi
    3 min read
    How to Detect Sniffer in Your Network?
    Sniffers are software or hardware devices that can be used for wiretapping over a computer network, such as LAN or WAN. They are used to collect data by listening and capturing IP packets. These devices usually have the ability of recording data which includes email, chat, web browsing, and informat
    5 min read
    Mitigation of DHCP Starvation Attack
    In a DHCP starvation attack, an attacker creates spoofed DHCP requests with the goal of consuming all available IP addresses that a DHCP server can allocate. This attack targets DHCP servers. The attack could deny service to authorized network users. In other words, a malicious cyberattack that targ
    5 min read

    Social Engineering

    What is Social Engineering? Working, Types, Prevention and Impact
    Social Engineering is an umbrella term for multiple malicious activities done by cyber criminals over the internet through human interaction. It doesn't involve the use of technical hacking techniques. Attackers use psychology and manipulation to trick users into performing actions that could compro
    8 min read
    What is Insider Attack?
    Cyber attacks on organizations are increasing both in number and magnitude. Often carried out by attackers with intentions to harm an organization, gain financial benefits, pursue political motives, spread terror, etc., these attacks always cost organizations in one form or another. Cyber security i
    6 min read
    What is an Impersonation Attack?
    An impersonation attack is a threat where hackers impersonate trusted people or organizations—such as your boss, bank, or a well-known service used by companies, to the trick victims so that they can give sensitive information, funds, or access to systems. Unlike classical malware-based attacks (e.g
    6 min read
    What are Tailgating?
    Tailgating is a term that refers to the practice of parking along the side of a road, usually by an open field or parking lot. Tailgaters are not only prohibited from entering the highway itself, but also have no right to drive on it at all. The term “tailgater” comes from tail-end Charlie, which me
    5 min read
    How Hackers Use Social Engineering to Get Passwords on Facebook?
    Social engineering is a powerful method for hackers to exploit computer systems without the use of malware or computer hacking tools. To carry out a successful social engineering hack, ethical hackers need to understand how to effectively use social media and human interaction to obtain sensitive in
    4 min read
    Pretexting in Social Engineering
    Pretexting is a social engineering technique that's used by hackers, spammers, and pranksters to assume and exploit the trust of an individual. It's been defined as the act of taking on an identity (usually those of a trusted person, such as a customer service representative) for the purpose of gain
    4 min read
    Credit Card Frauds
    This era belongs to technology where technology becomes a basic part of our lives whether in business or home which requires connectivity with the internet and it is a big challenge to secure these units from being a sufferer of cyber-crime. Wireless credit card processing is a tremendously new serv
    2 min read
    Active Social Engineering Defense (ASED)
    A proactive tactic called Active Social Engineering Defense (ASED) is used to lessen the risk of being the target of social engineers. We must first comprehend social engineering in order better to comprehend active social engineering defense (ASED). Social Engineering Attack:Without the use of malw
    6 min read
    Cyber Crime - Identity Theft
    Identity Theft also called Identity Fraud is a crime that is being committed by a huge number nowadays. Identity theft happens when someone steals your personal information to commit fraud. This theft is committed in many ways by gathering personal information such as transactional information of an
    5 min read
    Penetration Testing - Software Engineering
    In this guide, we'll explore the fundamentals of penetration testing, its importance in cybersecurity, and how it fits into the software development lifecycle (SDLC). From network security to web application security, we'll be going into various aspects of pen testing, equipping you with the knowled
    10 min read

    Denial-of-Service

    Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attack
    Imagine a scenario where you are visiting some websites and one of them seems to be a little slow. You might blame their servers for improving their scalability as they might be experiencing a lot of user traffic on their site. Most of the sites already take this issue into account beforehand. Chanc
    6 min read
    What are Bandwidth Attacks?
    Bandwidth attacks in ethical hacking target a network's bandwidth, and by extension, its available computing resources. A hacker can overload a network by sending a high number of packets to the computer or server at once. The processing power and memory in the system is limited and once it reaches
    6 min read
    HTTP Flood Attack
    Cyber crimes are increasing with the growing demand for the internet. With an increasing number of cybercrime cases reported each year, awareness of cyberattacks is very important. Cyber crimes/cyberattacks are done by hackers who unethically want to breach user data and steal sensitive information
    9 min read
    ICMP Flood DDoS Attack
    In today's world, Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have become a major threat to present computer networks. DDoS is a kind of attack in which an attacker targets the victim's network resources such as bandwidth or memory so that the victim may stop responding
    12 min read
    Ping Flood Attack
    A Ping Flood Attack, or ICMP Attack (Internet Control Message Protocol Attack), is a type of offensive cyberattack utilized to attack the targeted device—computer, server, or network—with a flood of false requests. It is a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, as it is intended to disrupt normal operation
    6 min read
    What is a Permanent DoS (PDoS) Attack?
    In today's modern world, we often come across the term Cybercrime or Cyberattacks very frequently. With the increasing demand for the internet, cybercrime occurrence has taken a great spike. Cyber crimes are crimes involving cyber technology/computer networks. Cyberattacks are extremely dangerous as
    6 min read
    What is Phlashing?
    Phlashing is a type of Denial of Service (DoS) Attack, also known as a Permanent Denial of Service Attack (PDoS) which is very severe because there is no way to undo this attack's consequences as it damages/corrupts the system to such an extreme level that there is no other way except to replace or
    4 min read
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