What type of attack is characterized by flooding a web server with large amounts of invalid traffic, causing it to stop responding to legitimate requests?

The type of attack characterized by overwhelming a web server with excessive amounts of invalid traffic, thereby disrupting its ability to respond to legitimate requests, is known as a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack. This type of attack aims to make a service unavailable to its intended users by depleting the resources of the server, such that it can no longer process valid transactions or requests.

Specifically, a Denial-of-Service attack can involve tactics such as sending a flood of requests to the server, which consumes its processing power and bandwidth. The server becomes sluggish and eventually can crash or become unresponsive, effectively denying service to legitimate users.

While a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack also falls within this category and is similar in nature, it specifically involves multiple compromised systems (often part of a botnet) launching the attack. In contrast, a Denial-of-Service attack may originate from a single source.

The other attack types mentioned do not apply in this context. A brute force attack involves attempting to gain unauthorized access to a system by guessing passwords or encryption keys rather than flooding a server with traffic. Session hijacking exploits existing sessions to gain unauthorized access rather than overwhelming the service. Understanding these distinctions is essential for recognizing