Which sophisticated DoS technique is hardest to detect and mitigate?

CEH v13 classifies application-layer DoS attacks as the most difficult to detect and mitigate. A distributed SQL injection-based DoS exploits database query processing by overwhelming backend systems with malicious but syntactically valid requests.

Unlike volumetric attacks, this method generates low-bandwidth, high-impact traffic that appears legitimate. Traditional DDoS protections often fail to identify such traffic, especially when it targets authenticated services like online banking.

UDP floods, Smurf attacks, and ICMP-based attacks are well-known and more easily mitigated with rate limiting and filtering. Zero-day exploits cause service disruption but are not primarily DoS techniques.

CEH v13 highlights that application-layer DoS attacks blend seamlessly with normal traffic patterns, making them exceptionally challenging. Thus, option A is correct.