An SNMP amplification attack exploits SNMP devices with predictable community strings by spoofing queries with large responses. The effectiveness of this attack can be increased by employing a distributed DDoS component as well by sending requests to multiple SNMP devices simultaneously.
To simulate an SNMP amplification attack, you will need to have a device with SNMP enabled on it. In the examples provided, a Windows XP device is used for this purpose. For more information on setting up a Windows system, please refer to the Installing Windows Server recipe in Chapter 1, Getting Started, of this book. Additionally, an installation of Ubuntu is used as a scan target. For more information on setting up Ubuntu, please refer to the Installing Ubuntu Server recipe in Chapter 1, Getting Started, of this book.