What is a Fraggle Attack?
A fraggle attack is a type of DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attack. Its main goal is to flood the victim’s network with a massive stream of fake UDP requests, leading to service disruption through network overload.
During a fraggle attack, the attacker sends spoofed UDP packets to a network’s broadcast address, forging the source IP to appear as the victim’s. Devices on the network treat the request as legitimate and respond to the spoofed source IP—flooding the victim with traffic.
What is the Difference Between a Smurf Attack and a Fraggle Attack?
Fraggle attacks work similarly to smurf attacks, but the key difference lies in the protocol used: smurf attacks rely on ICMP (ping), while fraggle attacks use UDP.
Learn more about smurf attacks: What is a Smurf Attack?
How to Protect Against Fraggle Attacks
To prevent fraggle attacks, it’s recommended to disable or restrict services that respond to UDP broadcast requests, configure spoofed IP filtering, and monitor or limit suspicious UDP traffic. These attacks were once highly effective due to poor filtering of broadcast traffic, but today their relevance has decreased thanks to improved network security practices.
While modern networks are typically well-protected against such threats, fraggle attacks can still pose a risk in poorly configured environments.
