Can the maximum ping size of 65500 bytes can be increased?

Question

Can I override the default maximum size - 65535 bytes of ICMP ping packets? If - then How?

Answer 1

The maximum size of an IPv4 packet is 65535 bytes of which some is protocol overhead so that data must be a couple bytes less than 65535 and a ping can't be more than one IP packet, so the answer is no.

Why would you want to send a larger ping?

Answer 2

Yes

In Windows, type:

Ping <target> -l xx

where xx is the buffer size.

For full options of the Windows ping command -

Usage: ping [-t] [-a] [-n count] [-l size] [-f] [-i TTL] [-v TOS]
        [-r count] [-s count] [[-j host-list] | [-k host-list]]
        [-w timeout] [-R] [-S srcaddr] [-4] [-6] target_name

Options:
-t             Ping the specified host until stopped.
               To see statistics and continue - type Control-Break;
               To stop - type Control-C.
-a             Resolve addresses to hostnames.
-n count       Number of echo requests to send.
-l size        Send buffer size.
-f             Set Don't Fragment flag in packet (IPv4-only).
-i TTL         Time To Live.
-v TOS         Type Of Service (IPv4-only. This setting has been deprecated
               and has no effect on the type of service field in the IP Header).
-r count       Record route for count hops (IPv4-only).
-s count       Timestamp for count hops (IPv4-only).
-j host-list   Loose source route along host-list (IPv4-only).
-k host-list   Strict source route along host-list (IPv4-only).
-w timeout     Timeout in milliseconds to wait for each reply.
-R             Use routing header to test reverse route also (IPv6-only).
-S srcaddr     Source address to use.
-4             Force using IPv4.
-6             Force using IPv6.

Answer 3

Yes, there is a way to increase the default size. Which OS or network device are you referring to?

By the way, there really is no practical reason to increase the size unless you're super curious or just plain ol' malicious.

From a network operations perspective, the increased overhead will choke performance. This is a bad idea.

From a security perspective, and much like John T points out, increasing the packet size for ICMP messages will usually lead to denial of service

Answer 4

the max size is 65507 which is 65535 (max ip length) - 20 (ip hdr) - 8 (icmp/ping hdr) = 65507. Windows OS blocks max size at 65500 but in Linux you can ping up to the real limit

Answer 5

The short answer to your question is - "NO"

But,You can open multiple ICMP Ping instances at the same time.

Open RUN > type ping IP -t -l 65500 and do the same for 10 or more times, it will multiply the packets.

Or, you can use my Java Program from HERE. [It opens 100 instances at the same time taking no more than 5%-6% of RAM]

Don't use it to perform ping of death attack.

Updated Link(Also The Program)

OR,

Use PsPing

This is a tool by Mark Russinovich which is able to perform very fast ping. It can also perform TCP and UDP pings, supports many functions(ex - warmup). And many more.

Answer 6

Anser is # ping google.com -s 65535

Usage: ping [OPTIONS] HOST

Send ICMP ECHO_REQUESTs to HOST

-4,-6       Force IP or IPv6 name resolution
-c CNT      Send only CNT pings
-s SIZE     Send SIZE data bytes in packets (default 56)
-i SECS     Interval
-A      Ping as soon as reply is recevied
-t TTL      Set TTL
-I IFACE/IP Source interface or IP address
-W SEC      Seconds to wait for the first response (default 10)
        (after all -c CNT packets are sent)
-w SEC      Seconds until ping exits (default:infinite)
        (can exit earlier with -c CNT)
-q      Quiet, only display output at start/finish
-p HEXBYTE  Payload pattern

Answer 7

If you increase the packet size more than 65500, the protocol does not have any idea to handle such kind of packets exceeding upper limit. The system is very likely to crash, an attack well known as the Ping of death.

To prevent it most operating systems limits its max ping size. To cross the limit you need to hack your os and it depends on which os you use.