DDoS Attack

What Is DDoS Attack?

A DDoS attack is a malicious behavior in which multiple attackers from different locations simultaneously launch attacks against one or several targets with serious consequences.

Typically, this type of attack utilizes malware-infected computers as assailants and remotely attacks the target object through a large amount of Internet traffic, rendering its network and servers inoperable.

Since the emanation points are distributed in different places, people named this kind of attack Distributed Denial of Service Attack, and so DDos attack for short.

How Does DDoS Attack Work?

DDoS attacks are generally carried out by attackers through machines that are connected to the Internet.

Initially, the attacker infects a group of computers with malware, turning them into bots and creating a botnet. When the attacker sets up the target, he or she remotely issues commands to all the bots - sending simultaneous requests to the target's IP address or sending extensive data that exceeds its bandwidth load.

This behavior will result in flooding the target's web server with requests for replies, overwhelming its resources and bandwidth, causing it to crash and not service legitimate users.

This is similar to the sudden influx of thousands of cars on an otherwise smooth highway, making it impossible for normal traffic to reach its destination.

Different Types of DDoS Attack

・Traffic-Based Attacks

This type of DDoS attack saturates the bandwidth of the attacked site by sending a massive number of network requests, which can cause serious server congestion.

Examples of specific attacks include UDP floods, ICMP floods, etc.

・Protocol Attacks

The goal of a protocol attack is to consume actual server resources, firewall resources, or other network device resources so that the target under attack can no longer provide normal services.

Specific examples include SYN flood attack, Ping of Death, fragmented packet attack, Smurf DDoS, etc.

・Application Layer Attacks

An application layer DDoS attack targets one of the network layers responsible for generating web pages and handling HTTP requests, mimicking legitimate traffic to deplete server resources and disrupt services.