CompTIA CASP+ Practice Test

What attack does Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding primarily prevent?

1. Denial of Service

2. Man-in-the-Middle

3. IP Spoofing

4. Session Hijacking

The correct answer is: IP Spoofing

Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF) is a security feature primarily designed to combat IP spoofing. This technique involves the use of a routing mechanism that verifies the source address of incoming packets to ensure that they are coming from a legitimate and expected source. When a packet arrives, uRPF checks if the source IP address matches the routing table entry that would be used to route a packet back to that source. If the source IP does not match the expected entry, the packet is dropped, preventing potentially malicious packets from entering the network. Since IP spoofing entails an attacker forging the source IP address to make it appear as if the packet comes from a trusted source, uRPF effectively mitigates this threat. Other options, while they address significant security concerns, are not directly linked to uRPF's operational purpose. Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and Session Hijacking involve different tactics that do not primarily revolve around falsifying source addresses, whereas Man-in-the-Middle attacks focus on intercepting communication rather than spoofing identity to initiate communication. Thus, uRPF’s functionality is specifically tailored to address IP spoofing attacks, making it a crucial component in enhancing network security.