CompTIA Security+ (SY0-501) — Question 358

Which of the following is an example of resource exhaustion?

Answer options

• A. A penetration tester requests every available IP address from a DHCP server.
• B. An SQL injection attack returns confidential data back to the browser.
• C. Server CPU utilization peaks at 100% during the reboot process.
• D. System requirements for a new software package recommend having 12GB of RAM, but only 8GB are available.

Correct answer: A

Explanation

Option A is correct because it demonstrates resource exhaustion by overwhelming the DHCP server with requests for all IP addresses. The other options describe different issues; option B is about data leakage, option C indicates high CPU usage during reboot, and option D discusses insufficient memory but does not involve consuming resources to exhaustion.