Algorithmic complexity attack

An algorithmic complexity attack is a form of computer attack that exploits known cases in which an algorithm used in a piece of software will exhibit worst case behavior. This type of attack can be used to achieve a denial-of-service.

Examples

See also

Adversarial input
Quicksort - popular and fast in-place sorting algorithm, running $O(n\log n)$ on average, but having $O(n^{2})$ behaviour if implemented naïvely.

Further reading

M. D. McIlroy (1999). "A Killer Adversary for Quicksort" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2010-06-16.
Scott A Crosby; Dan S Wallach (2003). "Denial of Service via Algorithmic Complexity Attacks". Archived from the original on 2007-02-02. Retrieved 2010-06-16.

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