Boost your skills for the Ethical Hacking Test. Explore diverse questions, insightful tips, and detailed explanations. Prepare effectively for your exam!

Each practice test/flash card set has 50 randomly selected questions from a bank of over 500. You'll get a new set of questions each time!

Practice this question and more.


What is the underlying concept behind a MAC flooding attack?

  1. Overloading the DHCP server

  2. Flooding switches with fake MAC addresses

  3. Redirecting DNS queries to a malicious server

  4. Constructing forged ARP requests

The correct answer is: Flooding switches with fake MAC addresses

The concept of a MAC flooding attack centers on overwhelming network switches with a large number of fake MAC addresses. In a typical network, switches maintain a MAC address table that associates each MAC address with the switch port through which it communicates. By flooding the switch with numerous invalid or fake MAC addresses, the attacker fills the switch's MAC address table. Once the MAC address table is filled, the switch becomes unable to learn the legitimate MAC addresses of devices on the network. As a result, it enters a state where it operates in "fail-open" mode, treating incoming frames as broadcasts, which means it will send packets to all ports rather than limiting traffic to the destination port. This significantly degrades network performance and can lead to unauthorized access, where the attacker can intercept traffic meant for other devices. This phenomenon highlights the vulnerability of switches to keep track of MAC addresses and exposes the underlying implications of trust in the network layer. Understanding this attack is essential for preventing potential breaches and implementing effective network security measures.