Enabling DHCP starvation attack protection

A DHCP starvation attack occurs when an attacker constantly sends forged DHCP requests using different MAC addresses in the chaddr field to a DHCP server. This exhausts the IP address resources of the DHCP server so legitimate DHCP clients cannot obtain IP addresses. The DHCP server may also fail to work because of exhaustion of system resources.

• To relieve a DHCP starvation attack that uses DHCP packets encapsulated with different source MAC addresses, you can limit the number of ARP entries that a Layer 3 interface can learn or MAC addresses that a Layer 2 port can learn. You can also configure an interface that has learned the maximum MAC addresses to discard packets whose source MAC addresses are not in the MAC address table.

• To prevent a DHCP starvation attack that uses DHCP requests encapsulated with the same source MAC address, enable MAC address check on the DHCP relay agent. With this function enabled, the DHCP relay agent compares the chaddr field of a received DHCP request with the source MAC address field of the frame. If they are the same, the DHCP relay agent decides this request as valid and forwards it to the DHCP server. If not, it discards the DHCP request.

To enable MAC address check:

	NOTE: DHCP relay agents change the source MAC addresses when forwarding DHCP packets. Therefore, you can enable MAC address check only on a DHCP relay agent directly connected to DHCP clients. Otherwise, valid DHCP packets may be discarded and clients cannot obtain IP addresses.