A teardrop attack consists of modifying the length and fragmentation offset fields in sequential IP packets so the target system becomes confused and crashes after it receives contradictory instructions on how the fragments are offset on these packets. A SYN attack is when an attacker floods a system with connection requests but does not respond when the target system replies to those requests. A smurf attack is an attack where the attacker spoofs the source IP address in an ICMP ECHO broadcast packet so it seems to have originated at the victim’s system, in order to flood it with REPLY packets. A buffer overflow attack occurs when a process receives much more data than expected. Source: KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 3: Telecommunications and Network Security (page 76).