An ICMP flood attack is also known as a Ping attack. An overwhelming number of Ping requests are sent to a target address. The network interface is programmed to automatically respond to Ping requests and so attempts to reply to all of them. The task eventually overwhelms the processor of the host, which becomes unable to dedicate processing power to any other task.
There are three types of ICMP flood attack:
Targeted local disclosed – Targets an endpoint on the same network
Router disclosed – Targets a router
Blind Ping – Includes a preparatory phase to discover a target’s IP address