This document provides an overview of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks including:
- Common types of DDoS attacks like UDP floods, SYN floods, DNS floods and HTTP floods and how they work to overwhelm servers.
- How DDoS attacks are evolving to larger sizes and more complex botnets.
- Methods for mitigating DDoS attacks including black hole routing, rate limiting, web application firewalls, anycast networks and cloud-based DDoS protection services.
- A real example of mitigating a massive 400Gbps DDoS attack and the largest attacks seen to date.
DDoS attacks make headlines everyday, but how do they work and how can you defend against them? DDoS attacks can be high volume UDP traffic floods, SYN floods, DNS amplification, or Layer 7 HTTP attacks. Understanding how to protect yourself from DDoS is critical to doing business on the internet today. Suzanne Aldrich, a lead Solutions Engineer at Cloudflare, will cover how these attacks work, what is being targeted by the attackers, and how you can protect against the different attack types. She will cap the session with the rise in IoT attacks, and expectations for the future of web security.
https://2017.badcamp.net/session/devops-performance-security-privacy/beginner/anatomy-ddos-attack
This document discusses distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It begins by defining a DDoS attack as a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic by overwhelming a target with a flood of traffic utilizing multiple compromised systems. The document then discusses the evolution of DDoS attacks over time in terms of size and complexity. It provides examples of different types of DDoS attacks including application layer attacks like HTTP floods, protocol attacks like SYN floods, and volumetric attacks like DNS amplification attacks. Finally, it discusses common techniques for mitigating DDoS attacks such as black hole routing, rate limiting, web application firewalls, and anycast network diffusion.
<p>DDoS attacks make headlines everyday, but how do they work and how can you defend against them? DDoS attacks can be high volume UDP traffic floods, SYN floods, DNS amplification, or Layer 7 HTTP attacks. Understanding how to protect yourself from DDoS is critical to doing business on the internet today.</p>
<p>Suzanne Aldrich, a lead Solutions Engineer at Cloudflare, will cover how these attacks work, what is being targeted by the attackers, and how you can protect against the different attack types. She will cap the session with the rise in IoT attacks, and expectations for the future of web security.</p>
<p><strong>Speaker Bio</strong>:</p>
<p>Suzanne is a solutions engineer team lead at Cloudflare, where she specializes in security, performance, and usability. Her interest in all things web started in high school when she created the school’s first website. While at Stanford, Suzanne was the webmaster for a matchbox sized server running the Wearable Computing Lab’s site.</p>
Hemant Jain outlines 10 DDoS mitigation techniques:
1. SYN proxy screens connection requests and only forwards legitimate ones to prevent SYN floods from overwhelming servers.
2. Connection limiting gives preference to existing connections and limits new requests to temporarily reduce server overload.
3. Aggressive aging removes idle connections from firewalls and servers to free up space in connection tables.
4. Source rate limiting identifies and denies excessive bandwidth to outlier IP addresses launching attacks.
Praktické postupy ochrany před DDoS útoky - Přednáška se bude zabývat postupy jak se chránit před DoS/DDoS útoky a to od nejnižší po nejvyšší vrstvu, od malých webů po korporátní sítě.
www.security-session.cz
DDoS attacks target companies and institutions that provide online services. They work by overloading servers with traffic from multiple compromised systems known as "bots" or "zombies". Common DDoS attack types include SMURF, TCP SYN/ACK, UDP flood, DNS amplification, and attacks using peer-to-peer networks. Defenses include configuring routers and firewalls to filter unauthorized traffic, limiting response messages, and tracking malicious activity on peer-to-peer networks. As attack methods evolve, continued development of detection and mitigation techniques is needed.
This document discusses how to launch and defend against DDoS attacks. It explains that DDoS attacks are easy to conduct using tools that allow for spoofing of IP addresses. It also describes how protocols like UDP and DNS amplification attacks can be used to launch large attacks. The document then provides recommendations for how to defend against DDoS attacks, including using a global network with anycast, hiding your origin IP, separating protocols by IP, and working closely with your upstream provider.
Water Torture: A Slow Drip DNS DDoS Attack on QTNet by Kei Nishida [APRICOT 2...APNIC
This document discusses a "Water Torture" DNS DDoS attack targeting QTNet, a Japanese telecommunications carrier. The attack works by botnets sending large numbers of random DNS queries to open resolvers, overwhelming cache DNS servers. QTNet saw this traffic grow in May 2014, overloading their cache DNS server. To block the attack, QTNet used iptables hashlimit module to limit queries to authoritative DNS servers, and is asking customers to update router firmware to prevent open resolvers. The fundamental problems are open resolvers enabling reflection and direct traffic from botnets, and QTNet may implement IP address blocking of port 53 traffic from the internet.
DDoS attacks make headlines everyday, but how do they work and how can you defend against them? DDoS attacks can be high volume UDP traffic floods, SYN floods, DNS amplification, or Layer 7 HTTP attacks. Understanding how to protect yourself from DDoS is critical to doing business on the internet today. Suzanne Aldrich, a lead Solutions Engineer at Cloudflare, will cover how these attacks work, what is being targeted by the attackers, and how you can protect against the different attack types. She will cap the session with the rise in IoT attacks, and expectations for the future of web security.
https://2017.badcamp.net/session/devops-performance-security-privacy/beginner/anatomy-ddos-attack
This document discusses distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It begins by defining a DDoS attack as a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic by overwhelming a target with a flood of traffic utilizing multiple compromised systems. The document then discusses the evolution of DDoS attacks over time in terms of size and complexity. It provides examples of different types of DDoS attacks including application layer attacks like HTTP floods, protocol attacks like SYN floods, and volumetric attacks like DNS amplification attacks. Finally, it discusses common techniques for mitigating DDoS attacks such as black hole routing, rate limiting, web application firewalls, and anycast network diffusion.
<p>DDoS attacks make headlines everyday, but how do they work and how can you defend against them? DDoS attacks can be high volume UDP traffic floods, SYN floods, DNS amplification, or Layer 7 HTTP attacks. Understanding how to protect yourself from DDoS is critical to doing business on the internet today.</p>
<p>Suzanne Aldrich, a lead Solutions Engineer at Cloudflare, will cover how these attacks work, what is being targeted by the attackers, and how you can protect against the different attack types. She will cap the session with the rise in IoT attacks, and expectations for the future of web security.</p>
<p><strong>Speaker Bio</strong>:</p>
<p>Suzanne is a solutions engineer team lead at Cloudflare, where she specializes in security, performance, and usability. Her interest in all things web started in high school when she created the school’s first website. While at Stanford, Suzanne was the webmaster for a matchbox sized server running the Wearable Computing Lab’s site.</p>
Hemant Jain outlines 10 DDoS mitigation techniques:
1. SYN proxy screens connection requests and only forwards legitimate ones to prevent SYN floods from overwhelming servers.
2. Connection limiting gives preference to existing connections and limits new requests to temporarily reduce server overload.
3. Aggressive aging removes idle connections from firewalls and servers to free up space in connection tables.
4. Source rate limiting identifies and denies excessive bandwidth to outlier IP addresses launching attacks.
Praktické postupy ochrany před DDoS útoky - Přednáška se bude zabývat postupy jak se chránit před DoS/DDoS útoky a to od nejnižší po nejvyšší vrstvu, od malých webů po korporátní sítě.
www.security-session.cz
DDoS attacks target companies and institutions that provide online services. They work by overloading servers with traffic from multiple compromised systems known as "bots" or "zombies". Common DDoS attack types include SMURF, TCP SYN/ACK, UDP flood, DNS amplification, and attacks using peer-to-peer networks. Defenses include configuring routers and firewalls to filter unauthorized traffic, limiting response messages, and tracking malicious activity on peer-to-peer networks. As attack methods evolve, continued development of detection and mitigation techniques is needed.
This document discusses how to launch and defend against DDoS attacks. It explains that DDoS attacks are easy to conduct using tools that allow for spoofing of IP addresses. It also describes how protocols like UDP and DNS amplification attacks can be used to launch large attacks. The document then provides recommendations for how to defend against DDoS attacks, including using a global network with anycast, hiding your origin IP, separating protocols by IP, and working closely with your upstream provider.
Water Torture: A Slow Drip DNS DDoS Attack on QTNet by Kei Nishida [APRICOT 2...APNIC
This document discusses a "Water Torture" DNS DDoS attack targeting QTNet, a Japanese telecommunications carrier. The attack works by botnets sending large numbers of random DNS queries to open resolvers, overwhelming cache DNS servers. QTNet saw this traffic grow in May 2014, overloading their cache DNS server. To block the attack, QTNet used iptables hashlimit module to limit queries to authoritative DNS servers, and is asking customers to update router firmware to prevent open resolvers. The fundamental problems are open resolvers enabling reflection and direct traffic from botnets, and QTNet may implement IP address blocking of port 53 traffic from the internet.
DDoS Open Threat Signaling (DOTS) Working Group Presentation on draft-ietf-do...ShortestPathFirst
Presentation given by Roland Dobbins covering our recent draft of use case scenarios for use in DDoS Open Threat Signaling. This presentation was given on Nov. 3rd, 2015 at IETF 94 in Yokohama, Japan.
This document discusses DNS DDoS attack types and defenses. It describes the history of major DNS DDoS attacks from 2012 to 2013, including attacks against Spamhaus and GoDaddy. It then analyzes different DNS DDoS attack types like bandwidth consuming attacks, massive query attacks, amplification attacks using open resolvers, and attacks using non-existent domain queries. Finally, it discusses defenses like packet filtering, rate limiting, response rate limiting (RRL), and distributing DNS infrastructure.
The presentation covers information about basic and advanced ddos attacks; the tools, techniques and methods to perform them and how to prevent them using the methods present in TCP/IP. Given the different network and application protocols for tcp/ip; we tried to describe where ddos attacks are made possible in the communication process . Each attack is seperately analyzed and described and defense technique is described using the same analogy. Our motto: If there is a ddos case, there was a way to defend it.
The document discusses denial of service (DoS) attacks and methods of mitigation. It describes various types of DoS attacks including flooding attacks like TCP SYN floods and UDP floods that exhaust server bandwidth or resources. Other attacks discussed include HTTP floods, SSL handshake floods, and attacks that exploit vulnerabilities or misuse features like HTTP POST floods and SSL renegotiation attacks. State-of-the-art mitigation techniques mentioned include DoS mitigation software developed by the Society for Electronic Transactions & Security that use techniques like client puzzles to protect against various application layer attacks.
1) The document describes a proposed SDN-based system to detect and prevent DDoS attacks. It uses entropy calculations on traffic flow statistics to detect attacks. When an attack is detected, the controller installs rules to block traffic from bot IPs and the server uses CAPTCHAs to authenticate legitimate users.
2) The system was tested using iperf and attack tools on an emulation platform. Results showed it maintained high throughput even during attacks, unlike approaches that overload the controller. It also had lower false positives than other detection algorithms.
3) Future work could include expanding the system to detect attacks targeting different SDN layers and more servers. The approach provides an effective and scalable DDoS defense for
Cloudflare protects and accelerates any web property online. We stop hackers from reaching your web property and knocking it offline. In addition, we help your site visitors access your content as fast as possible no matter their location. Join us as we discuss evolving DDoS attack types and trends to be aware about in 2018.
This document discusses strategies for conducting distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and bypassing mitigation tactics. It presents 10 attack strategies, including targeting backend systems like databases to cause amplification, using reflection techniques, and spoofing large ranges of IP addresses to overwhelm blocklisting defenses. The document also critiques common misconceptions that can leave systems vulnerable, such as not protecting HTTPS traffic or enabling dynamic cloud distribution without origin protection. The overall message is that comprehensive testing and planning is needed to effectively mitigate DDoS attacks.
The document provides information about different types of DDoS attacks including DoS, DDoS, DNS reflection, SYN reflection, SMURF, UDP flood, SNMP, NTP, HTTP GET, and HTTP POST attacks. It describes how each attack works and overloads the target system with traffic. Mitigation techniques are also outlined, such as firewalls, rate limiting, authentication, and modifying server configurations.
A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack shuts down a machine or a network to make it inaccessible to its intended users. This PPT sheds light upon this kind of a cyberattack and its types, to increase awareness related to the threat that it poses to web servers and applications.
The document compares two methods of mitigating DDoS attacks: the traditional Clean Pipe or Cleaning Center solution, and the Distributed Mitigation Managed Service (DMMS) by IPTP Networks. The DMMS by IPTP Networks provides several advantages over the Clean Pipe solution: it has zero reaction time, adds no additional latency, has bandwidth limits that are higher by an order of magnitude, and does not charge extra for bandwidth overload.
IPTP's Distributed Mitigation Managed Service (DMMS) provides superior DDoS mitigation compared to traditional clean pipe solutions. DMMS mitigates attacks across IPTP's global network of firewalls with no reaction time, no added latency, higher bandwidth limits, and no extra charges. Clean pipe solutions increase latency, have reaction times of 30 minutes to an hour, lower bandwidth capacity, and can incur extra costs for exceeding bandwidth limits.
The document discusses DDoS attacks and countermeasures. It begins with an overview of common DDoS attack types like botnet attacks and distributed reflected DNS attacks. It then discusses challenges like how easy it is to build botnets and buy them online. The document also covers the xFlash attack technique and new capabilities in Flash 9. The second part discusses countermeasures, emphasizing performance tuning, caching, scalability through architecture like shared nothing, and implementing defense in depth. It concludes by thanking the audience and asking for questions.
This document discusses DDoS attacks and mitigation methods. It begins by defining DDoS attacks as using multiple sources to overwhelm a target's availability, unlike a DOS attack which uses a single source. Common DDoS attack types are then outlined, along with the costs and impacts of attacks for victims. The document also provides details on specific attack methods like SYN floods, reflection attacks using DNS and NTP, and recommended mitigation techniques including whitelisting, rate limiting, and fingerprinting. It concludes by emphasizing that DDoS attacks are easy to carry out and difficult to detect, while having significant negative effects on victims.
Time-based DDoS Detection and Mitigation for SDN ControllerLippo Group Digital
This document proposes a method to detect and mitigate distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on software defined networking (SDN) controllers using time-based characteristics. The method considers not only the malicious packet destination but also the time needed to achieve high traffic rates and periodic attack patterns. The proposed solution architecture monitors packet rates over time windows to detect abnormal traffic increases. Future work includes optimizing detection thresholds, deeper analysis of DDoS attack time patterns, and evaluation of the method's performance in a simulation.
Sample Network Analysis Report based on Wireshark AnalysisDavid Sweigert
This network analysis report examines a packet capture file containing traffic between two internal hosts downloading a file from a remote server. The analysis found that one internal host, with IP ending in 1.119, experienced significant packet loss during the download, as shown by drops in throughput and bursts of TCP errors. This packet loss indicates a potential failure at an infrastructure device, likely causing the observed retransmissions and degradation in performance. Further analysis of ingress traffic is needed to determine if the packet loss is occurring internally or externally to the network.
The document discusses denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It defines DoS as an attack that renders a system unable to provide normal services by flooding it with traffic. DDoS uses multiple compromised systems to launch a coordinated DoS attack against one or more targets, multiplying the attack effectiveness. Attacks are classified by the system targeted (clients, routers, firewalls, servers), part of the system (hardware, OS, TCP/IP stack), and whether they exploit bugs or just overload resources. Common DDoS tools like Trinoo and TFN are mentioned. Protection from these large-scale attacks remains a challenge.
This is a presentation i made about Denial of Service or a Distributed Denial of Service (DoS / DDoS) and the latest methods used to crash anything online and the future of such attacks which can disrupt the whole internet . Such attacks which are in TB's and can be launched from just single computer. And, there is not much that can be done to prevent them.
DDoS Open Threat Signaling (DOTS) Working Group Presentation on draft-ietf-do...ShortestPathFirst
Presentation given by Roland Dobbins covering our recent draft of use case scenarios for use in DDoS Open Threat Signaling. This presentation was given on Nov. 3rd, 2015 at IETF 94 in Yokohama, Japan.
This document discusses DNS DDoS attack types and defenses. It describes the history of major DNS DDoS attacks from 2012 to 2013, including attacks against Spamhaus and GoDaddy. It then analyzes different DNS DDoS attack types like bandwidth consuming attacks, massive query attacks, amplification attacks using open resolvers, and attacks using non-existent domain queries. Finally, it discusses defenses like packet filtering, rate limiting, response rate limiting (RRL), and distributing DNS infrastructure.
The presentation covers information about basic and advanced ddos attacks; the tools, techniques and methods to perform them and how to prevent them using the methods present in TCP/IP. Given the different network and application protocols for tcp/ip; we tried to describe where ddos attacks are made possible in the communication process . Each attack is seperately analyzed and described and defense technique is described using the same analogy. Our motto: If there is a ddos case, there was a way to defend it.
The document discusses denial of service (DoS) attacks and methods of mitigation. It describes various types of DoS attacks including flooding attacks like TCP SYN floods and UDP floods that exhaust server bandwidth or resources. Other attacks discussed include HTTP floods, SSL handshake floods, and attacks that exploit vulnerabilities or misuse features like HTTP POST floods and SSL renegotiation attacks. State-of-the-art mitigation techniques mentioned include DoS mitigation software developed by the Society for Electronic Transactions & Security that use techniques like client puzzles to protect against various application layer attacks.
1) The document describes a proposed SDN-based system to detect and prevent DDoS attacks. It uses entropy calculations on traffic flow statistics to detect attacks. When an attack is detected, the controller installs rules to block traffic from bot IPs and the server uses CAPTCHAs to authenticate legitimate users.
2) The system was tested using iperf and attack tools on an emulation platform. Results showed it maintained high throughput even during attacks, unlike approaches that overload the controller. It also had lower false positives than other detection algorithms.
3) Future work could include expanding the system to detect attacks targeting different SDN layers and more servers. The approach provides an effective and scalable DDoS defense for
Cloudflare protects and accelerates any web property online. We stop hackers from reaching your web property and knocking it offline. In addition, we help your site visitors access your content as fast as possible no matter their location. Join us as we discuss evolving DDoS attack types and trends to be aware about in 2018.
This document discusses strategies for conducting distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and bypassing mitigation tactics. It presents 10 attack strategies, including targeting backend systems like databases to cause amplification, using reflection techniques, and spoofing large ranges of IP addresses to overwhelm blocklisting defenses. The document also critiques common misconceptions that can leave systems vulnerable, such as not protecting HTTPS traffic or enabling dynamic cloud distribution without origin protection. The overall message is that comprehensive testing and planning is needed to effectively mitigate DDoS attacks.
The document provides information about different types of DDoS attacks including DoS, DDoS, DNS reflection, SYN reflection, SMURF, UDP flood, SNMP, NTP, HTTP GET, and HTTP POST attacks. It describes how each attack works and overloads the target system with traffic. Mitigation techniques are also outlined, such as firewalls, rate limiting, authentication, and modifying server configurations.
A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack shuts down a machine or a network to make it inaccessible to its intended users. This PPT sheds light upon this kind of a cyberattack and its types, to increase awareness related to the threat that it poses to web servers and applications.
The document compares two methods of mitigating DDoS attacks: the traditional Clean Pipe or Cleaning Center solution, and the Distributed Mitigation Managed Service (DMMS) by IPTP Networks. The DMMS by IPTP Networks provides several advantages over the Clean Pipe solution: it has zero reaction time, adds no additional latency, has bandwidth limits that are higher by an order of magnitude, and does not charge extra for bandwidth overload.
IPTP's Distributed Mitigation Managed Service (DMMS) provides superior DDoS mitigation compared to traditional clean pipe solutions. DMMS mitigates attacks across IPTP's global network of firewalls with no reaction time, no added latency, higher bandwidth limits, and no extra charges. Clean pipe solutions increase latency, have reaction times of 30 minutes to an hour, lower bandwidth capacity, and can incur extra costs for exceeding bandwidth limits.
The document discusses DDoS attacks and countermeasures. It begins with an overview of common DDoS attack types like botnet attacks and distributed reflected DNS attacks. It then discusses challenges like how easy it is to build botnets and buy them online. The document also covers the xFlash attack technique and new capabilities in Flash 9. The second part discusses countermeasures, emphasizing performance tuning, caching, scalability through architecture like shared nothing, and implementing defense in depth. It concludes by thanking the audience and asking for questions.
This document discusses DDoS attacks and mitigation methods. It begins by defining DDoS attacks as using multiple sources to overwhelm a target's availability, unlike a DOS attack which uses a single source. Common DDoS attack types are then outlined, along with the costs and impacts of attacks for victims. The document also provides details on specific attack methods like SYN floods, reflection attacks using DNS and NTP, and recommended mitigation techniques including whitelisting, rate limiting, and fingerprinting. It concludes by emphasizing that DDoS attacks are easy to carry out and difficult to detect, while having significant negative effects on victims.
Time-based DDoS Detection and Mitigation for SDN ControllerLippo Group Digital
This document proposes a method to detect and mitigate distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on software defined networking (SDN) controllers using time-based characteristics. The method considers not only the malicious packet destination but also the time needed to achieve high traffic rates and periodic attack patterns. The proposed solution architecture monitors packet rates over time windows to detect abnormal traffic increases. Future work includes optimizing detection thresholds, deeper analysis of DDoS attack time patterns, and evaluation of the method's performance in a simulation.
Sample Network Analysis Report based on Wireshark AnalysisDavid Sweigert
This network analysis report examines a packet capture file containing traffic between two internal hosts downloading a file from a remote server. The analysis found that one internal host, with IP ending in 1.119, experienced significant packet loss during the download, as shown by drops in throughput and bursts of TCP errors. This packet loss indicates a potential failure at an infrastructure device, likely causing the observed retransmissions and degradation in performance. Further analysis of ingress traffic is needed to determine if the packet loss is occurring internally or externally to the network.
The document discusses denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It defines DoS as an attack that renders a system unable to provide normal services by flooding it with traffic. DDoS uses multiple compromised systems to launch a coordinated DoS attack against one or more targets, multiplying the attack effectiveness. Attacks are classified by the system targeted (clients, routers, firewalls, servers), part of the system (hardware, OS, TCP/IP stack), and whether they exploit bugs or just overload resources. Common DDoS tools like Trinoo and TFN are mentioned. Protection from these large-scale attacks remains a challenge.
This is a presentation i made about Denial of Service or a Distributed Denial of Service (DoS / DDoS) and the latest methods used to crash anything online and the future of such attacks which can disrupt the whole internet . Such attacks which are in TB's and can be launched from just single computer. And, there is not much that can be done to prevent them.
The document discusses distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, including how they work, common tools and methods used, and examples of recent large-scale DDoS attacks. It provides details on how botnets are used to overwhelm websites and infrastructure with malicious traffic. Specific DDoS attack types like UDP floods, SYN floods, and reflection attacks are outlined. Recent large attacks are described, such as those targeting bitcoin exchanges, social trading platforms, and Hong Kong voting sites ahead of a civil referendum.
The document provides an overview of common DDoS attack types including SYN floods, UDP floods, ICMP floods, and HTTP floods. It describes how these attacks work to overwhelm servers and networks with traffic to cause denial of service. The document also covers reflection DDoS attacks using protocols like DNS, NTP, and Memcached to amplify the traffic and discusses recommendations for mitigating these attacks.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is an open access online peer reviewed international journal that publishes research and review articles in the fields of Computer Science, Neural Networks, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plastic Engineering, Food Technology, Textile Engineering, Nano Technology & science, Power Electronics, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computational mathematics, Image processing, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, VLSI Testing & Low Power VLSI Design etc.
This document provides an overview of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, including how they work, common techniques used, and strategies for mitigating them. It defines DDoS attacks as attempts to exhaust the resources of networks, applications, or services to deny access to legitimate users. The document discusses how botnets are commonly used to launch large-scale DDoS attacks from multiple sources simultaneously. It also outlines best practices for selecting DDoS protection devices, emphasizing the importance of up-to-date detection techniques, low latency, and customized hardware-based logic to withstand major attacks.
Unleash the Hammer on Denial-of-Service: Conquer DDos Attacks!PriyadharshiniHemaku
Unleash the Hammer on Denial-of-Service: Conquer DDos Attacks!
This presentation cracks the code on devastating DDoS attacks, equipping you with insights and strategies to shield your systems and emerge victorious. Learn the devious tricks attackers use, explore robust defense mechanisms, and discover how to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving cyber-warfare landscape. Prepare to turn the tables on malicious actors and ensure your operations run smoothly, even under siege!
Presentation by Charl van der Walt at INFO SEC Africa 2001.
The presentation begins with a case study of a DoS attack launched on a number of high profile sites by the canadian teen "Mafiaboy". An explanation of DoS and DDoS given. The impact of DDoS in South Africa is also discussed. The presentation ends with a series of discussions on DDoS countermeasures.
Session for InfoSecGirls - New age threat management vol 1InfoSec Girls
This document discusses denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It defines DoS and DDoS, describes common types like volumetric and application layer attacks. It also outlines tools used to carry out DDoS attacks and methods to protect against attacks, including configuring web servers and reverse proxies, using firewalls, and techniques from web application security firms.
DDoS Threat Landscape - Ron Winward CHINOG16Radware
- DDoS attacks continue to grow in complexity and now utilize multi-vector attacks across all layers of the infrastructure. The top failure points for networks are internet pipe saturation and stateful firewalls.
- Common attack types include UDP, ICMP, reflection attacks, TCP weaknesses like SYN floods, low and slow attacks like Slowloris, and encrypted attacks such as HTTPS floods. Anonymous hacking tools enable these attacks.
- Successful mitigation of DDoS attacks requires proactive preparation across the network, including a hybrid solution of on-premise and cloud-based detection and mitigation, emergency response planning, and a single point of contact during attacks.
This document discusses the growing threat of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and strategies for mitigating them. It notes that DDoS attacks are increasing in size and sophistication, with some now reaching hundreds of gigabits per second. The document outlines different types of network layer and application layer DDoS attacks and examines methods that can be used to detect and prevent these attacks, such as packet anomaly checking, blacklisting, authentication, rate limiting, and protocol inspection. It also describes A10 Networks' Thunder TPS appliance for high-performance DDoS mitigation.
International Journal of Computational Engineering Research(IJCER) is an intentional online Journal in English monthly publishing journal. This Journal publish original research work that contributes significantly to further the scientific knowledge in engineering and Technology
denialofservice.pdfdos attacck basic details with interactive designperfetbyedshareen
The document discusses denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It defines DoS attacks as attempts to render a system unusable or slow it down for legitimate users by overloading its resources. DDoS attacks multiply the effectiveness of DoS by using multiple compromised computers to launch attacks simultaneously. Common DoS attack types like SYN floods, smurf attacks, and ping of death are described. The rise of botnets, which are networks of compromised computers controlled remotely, enable large-scale DDoS attacks that are difficult to defend against. Ways to mitigate DDoS attacks include load balancing, throttling incoming traffic, and using honeypots to gather attacker information.
This document discusses denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It defines DoS attacks as attempts to render a system unusable or slow it down for legitimate users by overloading its resources. DDoS attacks multiply the effectiveness of DoS by using multiple compromised computers to launch attacks simultaneously. Common DoS attack types like SYN floods, Smurf attacks, and ping of death are described. The rise of botnets, which are networks of compromised computers controlled remotely, enabled more powerful DDoS attacks. Mitigation strategies include load balancing, throttling traffic, and using honeypots to gather attacker information.
A survey of trends in massive ddos attacks and cloud based mitigationsIJNSA Journal
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks today
have been amplified into gigabits volume with
broadband Internet access; at the same time, the us
e of more powerful botnets and common DDoS
mitigation and protection solutions implemented in
small and large organizations’ networks and servers
are no longer effective. Our survey provides an in-
depth study on the current largest DNS reflection a
ttack
with more than 300 Gbps on Spamhaus.org. We have re
viewed and analysed the current most popular
DDoS attack types that are launched by the hacktivi
sts. Lastly, effective cloud-based DDoS mitigation
and
protection techniques proposed by both academic res
earchers and large commercial cloud-based DDoS
service providers are discussed
A survey of trends in massive ddos attacks and cloud based mitigationsIJNSA Journal
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks today
have been amplified into gigabits volume with
broadband Internet access; at the same time, the us
e of more powerful botnets and common DDoS
mitigation and protection solutions implemented in
small and large organizations’ networks and servers
are no longer effective. Our survey provides an in-
depth study on the current largest DNS reflection a
ttack
with more than 300 Gbps on Spamhaus.org. We have re
viewed and analysed the current most popular
DDoS attack types that are launched by the hacktivi
sts. Lastly, effective cloud-based DDoS mitigation
and
protection techniques proposed by both academic res
earchers and large commercial cloud-based DDoS
service providers are discussed
A SURVEY OF TRENDS IN MASSIVE DDOS ATTACKS AND CLOUD-BASED MITIGATIONSIJNSA Journal
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks today have been amplified into gigabits volume with broadband Internet access; at the same time, the use of more powerful botnets and common DDoS mitigation and protection solutions implemented in small and large organizations’ networks and servers are no longer effective. Our survey provides an in-depth study on the current largest DNS reflection attack with more than 300 Gbps on Spamhaus.org. We have reviewed and analysed the current most popular DDoS attack types that are launched by the hacktivists. Lastly, effective cloud-based DDoS mitigation and protection techniques proposed by both academic researchers and large commercial cloud-based DDoS service providers are discussed.
DDOS Mitigation Experience from IP ServerOne by CL LeeMyNOG
IP ServerOne is a Malaysian data center provider that manages over 4500 physical servers across 5 data centers. They experience 2-5 DDoS attacks per day, mostly ranging from 4.5-8.9 Gbps. To detect attacks, they use netflow to monitor traffic patterns and flag abnormal packet rates to single IPs. When an attack is detected, traffic is rerouted to on-premise filtering devices in less than 90 seconds to scrub attacks while allowing legitimate traffic. IP ServerOne advocates a hybrid mitigation approach using their own infrastructure alongside cloud-based protection.
This document provides an overview and update on distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks in the Nordic region from 2016 to 2017. Key points include:
- The majority of attacks were less than 500 Mbps in size and targeted TCP applications or DNS servers. SYN flooding attacks were very common.
- The total number of attacks in 2017 was higher than 2016, but average attack sizes were slightly smaller. Attacks targeting applications increased.
- IoT botnets like Mirai have become weaponized and are available for DDoS attacks. IoT devices remain vulnerable due to lack of security and patching on default devices. A new Windows-based Mirai variant can now infect both IoT
DDoS attacks work by using botnets to overwhelm a target site with large amounts of traffic, making it unavailable to legitimate users. They can have major business impacts by disrupting systems, damaging resources, and costing companies millions per day of downtime. While prevention is challenging due to distributed nature of attacks and internet, companies can mitigate risks by having adequate bandwidth, deploying DDoS defense systems, monitoring traffic, and creating incident response plans.
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2. Anatomy of DDoS
Dissecting Large Scale Internet Attacks
Performance & Scaling
https://events.drupal.org/vienna2017/sessions/anatomy-ddos
Suzanne Aldrich
Solutions Engineer
Cloudflare
3. What is a DDoS Attack?
DDoS Attacks Are Like Traffic Jams
4. ❖ Malicious attempt to disrupt
normal traffic
❖ Overwhelm target with flood
❖ Utilize multiple compromised
systems
❖ Motive can be political, social,
or financial
❖ Targets in every industry
Subject: ddos attack
Hi!
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hardly ddosed! Our attacks are super powerfull. And if you dont pay
until 17.
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We are not kidding and we will do small demo now on [XXXXXXXX] to
show we are serious.
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Elements of a DDoS Attack
An Example DDoS Ransom Note
5. In the winter of 2016, we mitigated
the largest Layer 3 DDoS attack to
date. We were not only able to
mitigate it, but accurately measure
and analyze it as well.
Mitigating Historic Attacks
Some of the Largest DDoS attacks
DDoS attacks take all shapes and
forms. In this 400Gbps
amplification attack, an attacker
used 4,529 NTP servers to amplify
an attack from a mere 87Mbps
source server.
Cloudflare has been fighting
historic DDoS attacks for over 5
years. Back in 2013, the 120Gbs on
Spamhaus was a “big” attack, and
we were able to keep their website
online.
Details Behind a 400Gbps NTP
Amplification Attack
400Gbps: Winter of Whopping
Layer 3 DDoS Attacks
The DDoS Attack That Almost
Broke the Internet
6. The Evolution of DDoS
DDoS attacks are evolving in size and complexity
2016
2013
2012
1Tbps // IoT Botnet Layer 7 Attack
400Gbps // NTP Reflection
300Gbps // Volumetric Layer 3/4
8. Botnet = Robot + Network
❖ Home & Office Computers
❖ Servers
❖ Mobile Phones
❖ IP Cameras
❖ DVR boxes
❖ Internet Connected Devices
Botnets
9. Operations:
❖ Attacker sends instructions to botnet
❖ Bots send requests to target
❖ Target server or network overflows
capacity
❖ Difficult to separate good from bad traffic
Botnets
11. Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model
A network connection on the Internet is composed of many different
components or “layers”.
12. Types of DDoS Attack Traffic
Degrades availability and performance of applications, websites, and APIs
Volumetric DNS Flood
Bots
DNS Server
DNS Server Server
Amplification (Layer 3 & 4)
HTTP Flood (Layer 7)
Bots
Bots
HTTP
Application
Application/Login
13. A DNS Amplification attack is like if someone
were to call a restaurant and say “I’ll have one of
everything, please call me back and tell me my
whole order,” where the callback phone
number they give is the target’s number. With
very little effort, a long response is generated.
DNS Amplification AttackVolumetric Attacks
14. A SYN Flood Attack is analogous to a worker in
a supply room receiving requests from the front
of the store. The worker receives a request, goes
and gets the package, and waits for
confirmation before bringing the package out
front. The worker then gets many more
package requests without confirmation until
they can’t carry any more packages, become
overwhelmed, and requests start going
unanswered.
SYN Flood AttackProtocol Attacks
15. This attack is similar to pressing refresh in a web
browser over and over on many different
computers at once – large numbers of HTTP
requests flood the server, resulting in denial-of-
service.
HTTP Flood AttackApplication Layer Attacks
22. 1. Server checks for running programs
listening at a specified port.
2. If no programs are receiving packets,
server responds with a ICMP (ping) packet
to inform sender that the destination was
unreachable.
Normal UDP TrafficUDP Flood Attack
23. As a result of the targeted server utilizing
resources to check and then respond to each
received UDP packet, the target’s resources can
become quickly exhausted when a large flood
of UDP packets are received, resulting in denial-
of-service to normal traffic.
Attack UDP TrafficUDP Flood Attack
25. 1. Client sends a SYN packet to the server in
order to initiate the connection.
2. Server responds with a SYN/ACK packet,
in order to acknowledge the
communication.
3. Client returns an ACK packet to
acknowledge the receipt of the packet
from the server. After completing this
sequence of packet sending and
receiving, the TCP connection is open and
able to send and receive data.
Normal TCP ConnectionSYN Flood Attack
26. 1. Attacker sends high volume of SYN
packets to the targeted server, often with
spoofed IP addresses.
2. Server responds to each connection
request and leaves an open port ready to
receive the response.
3. While the server waits for the final ACK
packet, attacker sends more SYN packets.
Each new SYN packet causes the server to
maintain new open port connection, and
once all the available ports have been
utilized the server is unable to function
normally.
SYN Flood TrafficSYN Flood Attack
27. 1. Increasing Backlog queue.
2. Recycling the Oldest Half-Open TCP
connection
3. SYN cookies
4. Using a Proxy Service
SYN Flood MitigationsSYN Flood Attack
29. DNS floods represent a change from traditional
amplification based attack methods. With
easily accessible high bandwidth botnets,
attackers can now target large organizations.
Until compromised IoT devices can be updated
or replaced, the only way to withstand these
types of attacks is to use a very large and highly
distributed DNS system that can monitor,
absorb, and block the attack traffic in realtime.
DNS Flood MitigationDNS Flood Attack
30. ❖ 10MM Requests/second
❖ 10% Internet requests everyday
❖ 38% of all DNS queries
❖ 115+ Data centers globally
❖ 10+ Tbps network capacity
❖ 2.5B Monthly unique visitors
❖ 6M+ websites, apps & APIs in 150 countries
Cloudflare Global NetworkCloudflare DDoS Protection
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32. WHAT DID YOU THINK?
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Editor's Notes
DDoS attacks make headlines every day, but how do they work, and how can you defend against them? DDoS attacks can be high volume UDP traffic floods, SYN floods, NTP amplification, or Layer 7 HTTP attacks, amongst others. Understanding how to protect yourself from DDoS is critical to doing business on the internet today. This talk will cover how these attacks work, what is being targeted by the attackers, and how you can protect against the different attack types.
From a high level, a DDoS attack is like a traffic jam clogging up the highway, preventing regular traffic from arriving at its desired destination.
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic. DDoS attacks achieve effectiveness by utilizing multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic. Exploited machines can include computers and other networked resources such as IoT devices.
The motive behind such attacks are often based on political, social, or religious animus, or utilized for financial gain when hackers threaten a website owner with an attack unless they pay a cryptocurrency ransom.
DDoS attacks are a reality for all industries. Last Thanksgiving we saw an attacker try to take out a web site during business hours in the US by attacking it daily (https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-daily-ddos-ten-days-of-massive-attacks/) with over 200Mpps and 400Gbps of traffic. They appeared to take the night off each night when their DDoS attack wouldn't cause the disruption they were hoping for.
Cloudflare engineers have witnessed some of the largest DDoS attacks in history unfold. In the winter of 2016, we mitigated the largest Layer 3 DDoS attack to date. We were not only able to mitigate it, but accurately measure and analyze it as well.
DDoS attacks take all shapes and forms. In this 400Gbps amplification attack, an attacker used 4,529 NTP servers to amplify an attack from a mere 87Mbps source server.
Cloudflare has been fighting historic DDoS attacks for over 5 years. Back in 2013, the 120Gbs on Spamhaus was a “big” attack, and we were able to keep their website online.
DDoS attacks are evolving in size and complexity. 2016 saw 3 attacks over 1 Tbps; one of these was launched at Cloudflare and we successfully protected our clients. 10 days later a similarly sized attack, launched through the Mirai botnet, brought down a good part of the internet in North America.
We see an L3/L4 DDoS attack every 6 minutes; we see an L7 DDoS attack every 8 minutes. In addition, L7 attacks have been increasing in size and complexity. For completeness, an attack every 6 minutes is over 80,000 attacks in a year; every 8 minutes is over 60,000.
It's not uncommon for an L3 attack to be > 50Gbps, which means any normal server Internet connection (which would likely be 10Gbps max) would be overwhelmed.
How does a DDoS attack work?
A DDoS attack requires an attacker to gain control of a network of online machines in order to carry out an attack. Computers and other machines (such as IoT devices) are infected with malware, turning each one into a bot (or zombie). The attacker then has remote control over the group of bots, which is called a botnet.
Once a botnet has been established, the attacker is able to direct the machines by sending updated instructions to each bot via a method of remote control. When the IP address of a victim is targeted by the botnet, each bot will respond by sending requests to the target, potentially causing the targeted server or network to overflow capacity, resulting in a denial-of-service to normal traffic. Because each bot is a legitimate Internet device, separating the attack traffic from normal traffic can be difficult.
What are common types of DDoS attacks?
Different DDoS attack vectors target varying components of a network connection. In order to understand how different DDoS attacks work, it is necessary to know how a network connection is made. A network connection on the Internet is composed of many different components or “layers”. Like building a house from the ground up, each step in the model has a different purpose. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model is a conceptual framework used to describe network connectivity in 7 distinct layers. This framework helps to reduce the complexity when discussing networks. Each layer provides service to the previous layer in the protocol stack.
L1 - Physical Layer - The physical medium for transferring data. Cat5E, Cat6, Fibre Optic, WiFi. Bits - Electrical pulses on the wire. Light transmission.
L2 - Datalink Layer - Defines the format of data on the network. Switching, MAC addresses.
L3 - Network Layer - Decides which physical path the data will take. NICs / Routers, combination of hardware and software. IPv4 and IPv6 addressing.
L4 - Transport Layer - Transmits data using transmission protocolss. TCP, UDP. Port numbers. Well Known Ports = 21, 22, 25, 53, 80, 443
L5 - Session Layer - Manages the sequence and flow of events that initiate and tear down network connections.
L6 - Presentation Layer - Simplest in function of any piece of the OSI model. Handles syntax processing of message data such as format conversions and encryption / decryption needed to support the Application layer above it.
L7 - Application Layer - Human-computer interaction layer, where applications can access the network services. HTTP, SMTP, DNS etc.
Attackers exploit the different layers:
Layer 3 flood - Reflection and Amplification attack.
Layer 4 - TCP SYN Flood.
Layer 7 - Slow Lloris, DNS Flood.
The important take-away is that these attacks are layered.
In other words, a DDoS can attack different parts of your infrastructure.
Volumetric DNS Flood: volumetric DNS queries against your DNS servers to make the DNS server unavailable
Amplification: using DNS to amplify requests and overload your server over UDP
HTTP Flood: volumetric HTTP attack to bring down the application
All of those attacks impacts availability and performance of of websites, applications and API’s.
Volumetric Attacks - This category of attacks attempts to create congestion by consuming all available bandwidth between the target and the larger Internet. Large amounts of data are sent to a target by using a form of amplification or another means of creating massive traffic, such as requests from a botnet.
DNS Amplification Attack
A DNS Amplification attack is like if someone were to call a restaurant and say “I’ll have one of everything, please call me back and tell me my whole order,” where the callback phone number they give is the target’s number. With very little effort, a long response is generated.
By making a request to an open DNS server with a spoofed IP address (the real IP address of the target), the target IP address then receives a response from the server. The attacker structures the request such that the DNS server responds to the target with a large amount of data. As a result, the target receives an amplification of the attacker’s initial query.
Protocol attacks, also known as a state-exhaustion attacks, cause a service disruption by consuming all the available state table capacity of web application servers or intermediate resources like firewalls and load balancers. Protocol attacks utilize weaknesses in layer 3 and layer 4 of the protocol stack to render the target inaccessible.
SYN Flood Attack
A SYN Flood Attack is analogous to a worker in a supply room receiving requests from the front of the store. The worker receives a request, goes and gets the package, and waits for confirmation before bringing the package out front. The worker then gets many more package requests without confirmation until they can’t carry any more packages, become overwhelmed, and requests start going unanswered.
This attack exploits the TCP handshake by sending a target a large number of TCP “Initial Connection Request” SYN packets with spoofed source IP addresses. The target machine responds to each connection request and then waits for the final step in the handshake, which never occurs, exhausting the target’s resources in the process.
Application Layer Attacks - Sometimes referred to as a layer 7 DDoS attack (in reference to the 7th layer of the OSI model), the goal of these attacks is to exhaust the resources of the target. The attacks target the layer where web pages are generated on the server and delivered in response to HTTP requests. A single HTTP request is cheap to execute on the client side, and can be expensive for the target server to respond to as the server often must load multiple files and run database queries in order to create a web page. Layer 7 attacks are hard to defend against as the traffic can be difficult to flag as malicious.
HTTP Flood Attack
This attack is similar to pressing refresh in a web browser over and over on many different computers at once – large numbers of HTTP requests flood the server, resulting in denial-of-service.
This type of attack ranges from simple to complex. Simpler implementations may access one URL with the same range of attacking IP addresses, referrers and user agents. Complex versions may use a large number of attacking IP addresses, and target random urls using random referrers and user agents.
How are DDoS attacks mitigated?
Mitigating a multi-vector DDoS attack requires a variety of strategies in order to counter different trajectories. Generally speaking, the more complex the attack, the more likely the traffic will be difficult to separate from normal traffic - the goal of the attacker is to blend in as much as possible, making mitigation as inefficient as possible. Mitigation attempts that involve dropping or limiting traffic indiscriminately may throw good traffic out with the bad, and the attack may also modify and adapt to circumvent countermeasures. In order to overcome a complex attempt at disruption, a layered solution will give the greatest benefit.
Black Hole Routing
One solution available to virtually all network admins is to create a blackhole route and funnel traffic into that route. In its simplest form, when blackhole filtering is implemented without specific restriction criteria, both legitimate and malicious network traffic is routed to a null route or black hole and dropped from the network. If an Internet property is experiencing a DDoS attack, the property’s Internet service provider (ISP) may send all the site’s traffic into a blackhole as a defense.
Rate Limiting
Limiting the number of requests a server will accept over a certain time window is also a way of mitigating denial-of-service attacks. While rate limiting is useful in slowing web scrapers from stealing content and for mitigating brute force login attempts, it alone will likely be insufficient to handle a complex DDoS attack effectively. Nevertheless, rate limiting is a useful component in an effective DDoS mitigation strategy.
Web Application Firewall
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a tool that can assist in mitigating a layer 7 DDoS attack. By putting a WAF between the Internet and a origin server, the WAF may act as a reverse proxy, protecting the targeted server from certain types of malicious traffic. By filtering requests based on a series of rules used to identify DDoS tools, layer 7 attacks can be impeded. One key value of an effective WAF is the ability to quickly implement custom rules in response to an attack.
Anycast Network Diffusion
This mitigation approach uses an Anycast network to scatter the attack traffic across a network of distributed servers to the point where the traffic is absorbed by the network. Like channeling a rushing river down separate smaller channels, this approach spreads the impact of the distributed attack traffic to the point where it becomes manageable, diffusing any disruptive capability.
The reliability of an Anycast network to mitigate a DDoS attack is dependent on the size of the attack and the size and efficiency of the network. An important part of the DDoS mitigation implemented by Cloudflare is the use of an Anycast distributed network. Cloudflare has a 10+ Tbps network, which is an order of magnitude greater than the largest DDoS attack recorded.
What is a UDP flood attack?
A UDP flood is a type of denial-of-service attack in which a large number of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets are sent to a targeted server with the aim of overwhelming that device’s ability to process and respond. The firewall protecting the targeted server can also become exhausted as a result of UDP flooding, resulting in a denial-of-service to legitimate traffic.
A UDP flood works primarily by exploiting the steps that a server takes when it responds to a UDP packet sent to one of it’s ports. Under normal conditions, when a server receives a UDP packet at a particular port, it goes through two steps in response:
1. The server first checks to see if any programs are running which are presently listening for requests at the specified port.
2. If no programs are receiving packets at that port, the server responds with a ICMP (ping) packet to inform the sender that the destination was unreachable.
A UDP flood can be thought of in the context of a hotel receptionist routing calls. First, the receptionist receives a phone call where the caller asks to be connected to a specific room. The receptionist then needs to look through the list of all rooms to make sure that the guest is available in the room and willing to take the call. Once the receptionist realizes that the guest is not taking any calls, they have to pick the phone back up and tell the caller that the guest will not be taking the call. If suddenly all the phone lines light up simultaneously with similar requests then they will quickly become overwhelmed.
As each new UDP packet is received by the server, it goes through steps in order to process the request, utilizing server resources in the process. When UDP packets are transmitted, each packet will include the IP address of the source device. During this type of DDoS attack, an attacker will generally not use their own real IP address, but will instead spoof the source IP address of the UDP packets, impeding the attacker’s true location from being exposed and potentially saturated with the response packets from the targeted server.
As a result of the targeted server utilizing resources to check and then respond to each received UDP packet, the target’s resources can become quickly exhausted when a large flood of UDP packets are received, resulting in denial-of-service to normal traffic.
How is a UDP flood attack mitigated?
Most operating systems limit the response rate of ICMP packets in part to disrupt DDoS attacks that require ICMP response. One drawback of this type of mitigation is that during an attack legitimate packets may also be filtered in the process. If the UDP flood has a volume high enough to saturate the state table of the targeted server’s firewall, any mitigation that occurs at the server level will be insufficient as the bottleneck will occur upstream from the targeted device.
How does Cloudflare mitigate UDP Flood attacks?
In order to mitigate UDP attack traffic before it reaches its target, Cloudflare drops all UDP traffic not related to DNS at the network edge. Because Cloudflare’s Anycast network scatters web traffic across many Data Centers, we have sufficient capacity to handle UDP flood attacks of any size.
What is a SYN flood attack?
A SYN flood (half open attack) is a type of denial-of-service (DDoS) attack which aims to make a server unavailable to legitimate traffic by consuming all available server resources. By repeatedly sending initial connection request (SYN) packets, the attacker is able to overwhelm all available ports on a targeted server machine, causing the targeted device to respond to legitimate traffic sluggishly or not at all.
SYN flood attacks work by exploiting the handshake process of a TCP connection. Under normal conditions, TCP connection exhibits three distinct processes in order to make a connection.
1. First, the client sends a SYN packet to the server in order to initiate the connection.
2. The server than responds to that initial packet with a SYN/ACK packet, in order to acknowledge the communication.
3. Finally, the client returns an ACK packet to acknowledge the receipt of the packet from the server. After completing this sequence of packet sending and receiving, the TCP connection is open and able to send and receive data.
To create denial-of-service, an attacker exploits the fact that after an initial SYN packet has been received, the server will respond back with one or more SYN/ACK packets and wait for the final step in the handshake. Here’s how it works:
1. The attacker sends a high volume of SYN packets to the targeted server, often with spoofed IP addresses.
2. The server then responds to each one of the connection requests and leaves an open port ready to receive the response.
3. While the server waits for the final ACK packet, which never arrives, the attacker continues to send more SYN packets. The arrival of each new SYN packet causes the server to temporarily maintain a new open port connection for a certain length of time, and once all the available ports have been utilized the server is unable to function normally.
In networking, when a server is leaving a connection open but the machine on the other side of the connection is not, the connection is considered half open. In this type of DDoS attack, the targeted server is continuously leaving open connections and waiting for each connection to timeout before the ports become available again. The result is that this type of attack can be considered a “half-open attack”.
A SYN flood can occur in three different ways:
Direct attack: A SYN flood where the IP address is not spoofed is known as a direct attack. In this attack, the attacker does not mask their IP address at all. As a result of the attacker using a single source device with a real IP address to create the attack, the attacker is highly vulnerable to discovery and mitigation. In order to create the half-open state on the targeted machine, the hacker prevents their machine from responding to the server’s SYN-ACK packets. This is often achieved by firewall rules that stop outgoing packets other than SYN packets or by filtering out any incoming SYN-ACK packets before they reach the malicious users machine. In practice this method is used rarely (if ever), as mitigation is fairly straightforward – just block the IP address of each malicious system.
Spoofed Attack: A malicious user can also spoof the IP address on each SYN packet they send in order to inhibit mitigation efforts and make their identity more difficult to discover. While the packets may be spoofed, those packets can potentially be traced back to their source. It’s difficult to do this sort of detective work but it’s not impossible, especially if Internet service providers (ISPs) are willing to help.
Distributed attack (DDoS): If an attack is created using a botnet the likelihood of tracking the attack back to its source is low. For an added level of obfuscation, an attacker may have each distributed device also spoof the IP addresses from which it sends packets. If the attacker is using a botnet such as the Mirai botnet, they generally won’t care about masking the IP of the infected device.
By using a SYN flood attack, a bad actor can attempt to create denial-of-service in a target device or service with substantially less traffic than other DDoS attacks. Instead of volumetric attacks, which aim to saturate the network infrastructure surrounding the target, SYN attacks only need to be larger than the available backlog in the target’s operating system. If the attacker is able to determine the size of the backlog and how long each connection will be left open before timing out, the attacker can target the exact parameters needed to disable the system, thereby reducing the total traffic to the minimum necessary amount to create denial-of-service.
How is a SYN flood attack mitigated?
SYN flood vulnerability has been known for a long time and a number of mitigation pathways have been utilized. A few approaches include:
Increasing Backlog queue
Each operating system on a targeted device has a certain number of half-open connections that it will allow. One response to high volumes of SYN packets is to increase the maximum number of possible half-open connections the operating system will allow. In order to successfully increase the maximum backlog, the system must reserve additional memory resources to deal with all the new requests. If the system does not have enough memory to be able to handle the increased backlog queue size, system performance will be negatively impacted, but that still may be better than denial-of-service.
Recycling the Oldest Half-Open TCP connection
Another mitigation strategy involves overwriting the oldest half-open connection once the backlog has been filled. This strategy requires that the legitimate connections can be fully established in less time than the backlog can be filled with malicious SYN packets. This particular defense fails when the attack volume is increased, or if the backlog size is too small to be practical.
SYN cookies
This strategy involves the creation of a cookie by the server. In order to avoid the risk of dropping connections when the backlog has been filled, the server responds to each connection request with a SYN-ACK packet but then drops the SYN request from the backlog, removing the request from memory and leaving the port open and ready to make a new connection. If the connection is a legitimate request, and a final ACK packet is sent from the client machine back to the server, the server will then reconstruct (with some limitations) the SYN backlog queue entry. While this mitigation effort does lose some information about the TCP connection, it is better than allowing denial-of-service to occur to legitimate users as a result of an attack.
How does Cloudflare mitigate SYN Flood attacks?
Cloudflare mitigates this type of attack in part by standing between the targeted server and the SYN flood. When the initial SYN request is made, Cloudflare handles the handshake process in the cloud, withholding the connection with the targeted server until the TCP handshake is complete. This strategy takes the resource cost of maintaining the connections with the bogus SYN packets off the targeted server and places it on Cloudflare’s Anycast network.
What is a DNS Flood?
Domain Name System (DNS) servers are the “phonebooks” of the Internet; they are the path through which Internet devices are able to lookup specific web servers in order to access Internet content. A DNS flood is a type of distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) where an attacker floods a particular domain’s DNS servers in an attempt to disrupt DNS resolution for that domain. If a user is unable to find the phonebook, it cannot lookup the address in order to make the call for a particular resource. By disrupting DNS resolution, a DNS flood attack will compromise a website, API, or web application's ability respond to legitimate traffic. DNS flood attacks can be difficult to distinguish from normal heavy traffic because the large volume of traffic often comes from a multitude of unique locations, querying for real records on the domain, mimicking legitimate traffic.
How does a DNS flood attack work?
The function of the Domain Name System is to translate between easy to remember names (e.g. example.com) and hard to remember addresses of website servers (e.g. 192.168.0.1), so successfully attacking DNS infrastructure makes the Internet unusable for most people. DNS flood attacks constitute a relatively new type of DNS-based attack that has proliferated with the rise of high bandwidth Internet of Things (IoT) botnets like Mirai. DNS flood attacks use the high bandwidth connections of IP cameras, DVR boxes and other IoT devices to directly overwhelm the DNS servers of major providers. The volume of requests from IoT devices overwhelms the DNS provider’s services and prevents legitimate users from accessing the provider's DNS servers.
How can a DNS Flood attack be mitigated?
DNS floods represent a change from traditional amplification based attack methods. With easily accessible high bandwidth botnets, attackers can now target large organizations. Until compromised IoT devices can be updated or replaced, the only way to withstand these types of attacks is to use a very large and highly distributed DNS system that can monitor, absorb, and block the attack traffic in realtime.
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