CompTIA PenTest+ Practice Test

Which type of attack aims at disrupting service availability through resource exhaustion?

1. Insider attacks

2. Denial of Service attacks

3. Social engineering attacks

4. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

The correct answer is: Denial of Service attacks

Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are designed specifically to disrupt service availability by overwhelming a target's resources, rendering it unable to respond to legitimate requests. These attacks can take various forms, such as flooding the network with excessive traffic, exploiting vulnerabilities, or consuming computational resources to the point of exhaustion. The ultimate goal is to make a service unusable for its intended users, effectively denying access. Insider attacks typically involve individuals within an organization exploiting their access rights to compromise systems or data, rather than focusing on resource exhaustion. Social engineering attacks manipulate people into giving up confidential information rather than targeting system resources directly. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) focuses on injecting malicious scripts into web pages viewed by users, which is distinct from the objective of causing resource exhaustion. Understanding the mechanics and goals of these different types of attacks is important in the context of cybersecurity, as it helps in devising appropriate defensive measures against each type of threat.