Information, Computer and Network Security Terms Glossary and Dictionary

Process table attack

Process table attack is a type of denial of service (DoS) attack against UNIX systems. The attack is launched against network services which fork or otherwise allocate a new process for each incoming TCP/IP connection. Although the standard UNIX operating system places limits on the number of processes that any user may launch, there are no limits on the number of processes that the superuser can create other than the hard limits imposed by the operating system. Since incoming TCP/IP connections are usually handled by servers that run as root, it is possible to completely fill a target machine's process table with multiple instantiations of network servers. Properly executed, this attack prevents any other command from being executed on the target machine.

Related Terms

Process table attack