Which statement correctly differentiates a SYN flood from an HTTP flood?

• A. SYN flood targets application-layer resources.
• B. SYN flood uses HTTP requests.
• C. SYN flood targets the TCP handshake; HTTP flood targets web applications via HTTP requests.
• D. Both floods use the same protocol.

Answer: (C)

The main idea is to recognize which layer and protocol each attack abuses. A SYN flood overloads the TCP handshake itself by sending a flood of SYN packets, leaving the server with half-open connections and filling up its backlog so legitimate clients can’t establish new connections. An HTTP flood, instead, targets the web application by sending大量 HTTP requests, consuming the server’s application resources, such as workers and memory, and potentially saturating bandwidth.

That’s why the best statement is that a SYN flood targets the TCP handshake, while an HTTP flood targets web applications via HTTP requests. The other options don’t fit because a SYN flood does not use HTTP requests and does not target application-layer resources; HTTP floods rely on the HTTP protocol at the application layer; and both floods do not use the same protocol.