A distributed denial-of-services (DDoS) attack can be one of the strongest weapons online. When you think about a site being brought down by attackers, it means that it has become a possible victim of a DDoS attack, which is a method of taking down a web server by attacking its central system of servers. Basically, a DDoS takes place when a lot of traffic is sent to a web server, causing it to experience overwhelming load. The Internet is full of systems that use networking and file sharing to function; if you are connected to the Internet, you are a likely target of a DDoS. In other words, if you are online, you are at risk of being attacked. There are several different ways in which a DDoS could be carried out, and we’ll discuss some here.
Distributed Denial Of Service attacks can be carried out by attackers using a variety of methods. Distributed denial-of -service attacks are often known as “volumetric attacks.” These are carried out by attackers who use a large number of techniques to flood a targeted network with traffic, making it impossible for that network to function normally. In other words, a DDoS requires massive amounts of Internet traffic to bring down a server.
Two Types Of Attacks
There are two common types of DDoS attacks: Distributed Denial Of Service or more popularly known as “bursting” and simultaneous rolling DDoS attacks. Bursting occurs when a huge number of requests come into a targeted server, but there is no buffer space to store those requests. As a result, hundreds, thousands or even millions of Internet requests can flood the target server at one time. For example, if a server is under the attack of about 1000 malicious Internet users, it would take minutes or hours for that server to respond to all the requests. A simultaneous rolling DDoS occurs when multiple users attempt to send hundreds or thousands of DDoS requests at one time. In this case, if the server has no buffer space available, the server will simply response with a single response for every request sent.
DDoS Tools
While these attacks can be carried out by a wide variety of actors, they primarily involve individuals or sophisticated cyber criminals who have resources and skills. Typically, someone would initiate the attack by tricking the victim into clicking a link or executing a malicious program. From there, the cybercriminal would then use DDoS tools like scripts and automated software to send massive amounts of data to the target. It is this ability to send massive amounts of data that makes DDoS tools so dangerous. Anyone can simply plug in an automated tool and then cause problems for hundreds of Internet hosts, if they have the right technical skills.
The problem with using a protocol as the tool of an attack is that if the attack uses a standard protocol, the Internet service provider, which is also called the HTTP server, will be able to trace the attacker’s attack and block it. However, DDoS tools work differently. Instead of contacting an HTTP server to send a request, they contact a proxy server. If the attack uses a popular protocol, the server’s response to the request will be displayed to the attacker, allowing them to easily determine whether the server is legitimate or not.
Name System
While DDoS tools make use of a variety of programming vulnerabilities, the most common ones are often found in the “name system” vulnerabilities. The name system vulnerability refers to a critical flaw in the way that DNS servers resolve domain names. An attacker could create a name in the target domain that points to something malicious, like a back door website. Since the DNS server uses the IP address to identify each name, the attack will be successful if the target’s IP address is used to trick the DNS server into returning the requested name. In order to protect against DDoS attacks, all DNS servers must verify the legitimacy of every name before returning it, to cut off any attacks on sensitive networks.
Payload Vulnerability
Another one of the common vulnerabilities of DDoS tools is the payload vulnerability. An attacker sends unusually large traffic through an Internet connection, typically employing a low-level protocol like TCP/IP to do so. However, this kind of attack requires an attacker to know the IP address of every PC that will be participating in the attack. Because of this, these types of attacks are quite different from the typical spamming techniques used to send ICMP packets and other types of invalid traffic, making them harder to detect and defend against. While DDoS tools that make use of ICMP or TCP packets to deliver their payload can easily detect and block by using various filtering systems, they cannot easily distinguish between valid traffic and unwanted traffic, leaving you with no defence against attacks of the aforementioned variety.
BotNets
Botnets are another way that Distributed Denial Of Service attack can be carried out. Botnets are groups of infected computers that operate together and receive instructions from their creator or attackers. If these computers are allowed to continue executing their instructions, the security of your network is compromised and your data vulnerable to attacks. Although botnets are not the most serious of all DDoS attacks, they are among the most troublesome because they are able to easily spread themselves throughout the Internet and cause major disruptions to websites and Internet services.
