Information, Computer and Network Security Terms Glossary and Dictionary

DHCP Starvation

A DHCP starvation attack works by broadcasting DHCP requests with spoofed MAC addresses. This is easily achieved with attack tools such as gobbler. If enough requests are sent, the network attacker can exhaust the address space available to the DHCP servers for a period of time. This is a simple resource starvation attack just like a SYN flood is a starvation attack. The network attacker can then set up a rogue DHCP server on his or her system and respond to new DHCP requests from clients on the network. Exhausting all of the DHCP addresses is not required to introduce a rogue DHCP server, though.

Related Terms

DHCP Starvation