A ping of death is a type of denial-of-service attack in which an attacker sends a malicious ping to a target system with the intention of causing it to crash or freeze. The ping of death exploit was first discovered in 1997 and was used to attack systems running Windows 95 and Windows NT. The exploit works by sending a ping packet that is larger than the maximum allowed size of 65,535 bytes. When the target system attempts to process the oversized packet, it typically results in a system crash.

What can be done to prevent a Ping of Death attack?

There are a number of ways to prevent a ping of death attack. One is to simply drop any ping packets that are larger than 65,536 bytes. Another is to fragment large ping packets into multiple smaller packets, which can then be reassembled by the target system.

There are a few things you can do to prevent a ping of death attack:

1. Use a firewall: A firewall can help to block incoming ICMP packets that are malformed or oversized.

2. Enable ICMP rate-limiting: This will help to limit the number of ICMP packets that can be sent to a target system in a given period of time, making it more difficult for an attacker to launch a successful ping of death attack.

3. Use anti-spoofing measures: Anti-spoofing measures can help to prevent an attacker from spoofing their IP address and launching a ping of death attack from a fake source.

4. Keep your systems up to date: Make sure to keep your operating system and software up to date with the latest security patches. This will help to close any potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an attacker.