Buffer Overflow attack
This study aimed to assess the concept of Buffer Overflow attack and how it can be implemented and mitigated on a Cisco switch. The study also investigated the methods, tools, and strategies employed to detect and mitigate these attacks on Cisco switches. The researcher employed a systematic review strategy during the research process. Further, the researcher utilized a thematic analysis; the study results formed the basis of the study discussion and conclusion. This section presents the study outcome discussion; the section also points out the study limitations and future directions.
This study demonstrates that buffer overruns are common in many network systems (SITE). The study shows that the Cisco switches either drop buffer traffic when there is a traffic control failure within the network switch. The study shows that if a network system consists of interconnected servers and nodes, if one node simultaneously requests data from all other nodes connected to it simultaneously, the traffic is released from all other nodes simultaneously. All the traffic floods on the requestor switch, and if the switch does not have sufficient buffer capabilities, it drops the traffic causing the delay.
The study shows that frame flooding constitutes the primary vulnerability exploitable to compromise a network Cisco Switch security. The attacker carries out a MA address flooding; this strategy is used against switching infrastructure as a denial-of-service (DOS) attack. Further, attackers can capture data in transit between computers when the MAC flooding attack was not successful. Even with the receiver of a switch from a MAC flooding attack being launched, an attacker can retain access to data that is privileged by using an ARP spoofing attack (SITE). The study has also shown that the attacker can also reload the Cisco Switch repeatedly to generate a DOS attack. A stack overflow and the possibility of executing arbitrary commands.
The study recommends the deployment of SNMP traps and setting port security as the most effective way to detect, prevent, and mitigate a vulnerability exploit in a network’s Cisco Switch (SITE). Additionally, the study also recommends installing fixes and patches to eliminate the vulnerabilities of slow attacks to remotely execute code on a compromised switch or a DOS attack.
This study identified only 15 sources as primary data sources; it can be argued that due to the small number of the selected sources, the reliability and the validity of the study outcomes can be put into question. However, the researcher employed verifications to ensure the reliability of the sources; thus, the study outcome is arguably reliable and can be replicated.