Question

While analyzing a PCAP in Wireshark during an incident, an analyst notices that a server suddenly begins sending a stream of TCP ACK segments where the Window Size field is set to 0, while the sequence and acknowledgment numbers continue to advance normally without errors. Based on interpreting these protocol header fields, what is the most accurate conclusion?

Accepted Answer

The server is advertising a zero receive window, signaling the sender to pause transmission because its receive buffer is full

Answer

The server is performing a TCP RST attack to forcibly terminate the connection

Answer

The packets indicate a SYN flood because the window field is used to track half-open connections

Answer

The zero window value proves the payload is encrypted and cannot be inspected further