What technique involves splitting packets into smaller chunks to evade detection by an Intrusion Detection System (IDS)?

Fragmenting packets is a technique used to evade detection mechanisms such as Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) by breaking down larger packets into smaller, more manageable pieces. By doing this, potential malicious activity may go unnoticed since the IDS might only analyze packets based on certain characteristics or patterns. When packets are fragmented, the IDS may not receive enough information to identify potential threats because it analyzes each part separately, and the context of the full packet is lost.

In contrast, encoding packets in base64 is primarily used for data representation rather than evasion; a Christmas scan is a specific type of network scanning technique that can likely trigger alerts; and setting a custom route might rearrange the path that packets take but does not inherently provide a means to evade detection by fragmenting packet content. Therefore, the action of packet fragmentation directly relates to the goal of evasion by manipulating how the data is transmitted and perceived by monitoring systems.