In a direct flood attack, the flood originates from which source?

• A. The attacker's own computer
• B. Compromised hosts under attacker control
• C. A misconfigured router
• D. A third-party open relay

Answer: (A)

Direct flood means the attacker uses their own machine and its outbound bandwidth to send a deluge of traffic straight at the target. Since there’s no intermediary compromised host or relay involved, the flood’s source is the attacker’s own IP address, making this a single-source attack that can be easier to identify and block at the target’s edge. The alternatives describe different patterns: using compromised hosts creates a botnet and a distributed flood; a misconfigured router can cause traffic anomalies but isn’t the typical direct flood mechanism; and an open relay would forward traffic through a third party rather than originate it from the attacker’s own machine.