DDoS: what is DDoS attack? Why is this in demand? DDoS stands for denial of service attack. Focusing on these, we will discuss DDoS in this article.
What do we have for you
- What does DDoS attack mean
- Is DDoS attack legal?
- Where is the DDoS attack used?
- 5 Ways to prevent Dos attack?
- DDoS Tools And Techniques
- Laws On DOS Attacks
- Conclusion
- FAQ
What does DDoS attack mean?
DDoS is a cyber attack that makes a website or application temporarily down for the users.
In a DDoS attack, several web requests are sent to the website claiming that all the requests are coming from legit users, but they are coming from bots.
Let’s understand this DDoS with a daily life example:
There are many websites that claim that if you refer 20 peoples to their website within 12 hrs, the website will reward you with money. Wait do these website pay? Yes, Most probably such websites pay but it is not possible to refer 20 people to a website where there is nothing interesting.
Now how are you gonna get that reward? Is there any possible way that you get that reward and you get it without actually sharing the website. Yes, it is possible. We all are aware of fake refer, and we are not only aware of fake refer but we have done it many times.
What are we doing? We are doing fake refers and creating such an environment that the website Artificial intelligence and tools think that you are a legit referred friend.
This type of practice when there are several requests from the user side but there is no actual user is an example of DDoS attack.
DDoS can be also explained as flooding a web server with the n number of requests that it cannot handle those requests and the website gets temporarily down.
Is DDoS attack legal?
No, not it is not an ethical practice. Flooding a website with the number of requests that it cannot handle comes under unethical practice unless we are working for that particular organization or we are hired as a penetration tester hired by the company.
Where is the DDoS attack used?
Nowadays mostly it is used for personal profit. Like there are many live examples of big and small websites that have been breached by a dos attack for personal profit.
Now the main question arises how is DDoS can be useful for personal use?
So let me explain this little logical part that makes you a criminal. There are several legit sites that open sale and the stock lasts for a minimum of 5 seconds. Why is it so? Because several users are waiting for the sale to start.
But wait where is our profit? As I told above the stock lasts for 1 minimum of 5 seconds and if we breach the website just before the sale starts, what will happen?
Yes, you are getting it right the website will be temporarily down. Now the stock is full. You can send unlimited requests to that website with a regular interval of time. Claiming that you are a legit user, in between this process users might get away thinking that the stock would have ended. And now you have the maximum probability of getting that sale. Isn’t it great, you grabbed the biggest sale. But the risk for breaching a website is also big.
For practicing and learning, you can use your website or test website that is specially designed for learning dos attacking.
5 Ways To Prevent Dos attack?
Learning how dos attack works aren’t enough. So if you are going for your website then you must be aware and able of how to prevent dos attacks.
Some of the most popular things that can be done to secure your website from dos attacks are stated below:
Buy more bandwidth:
Going from all the resources, the main thing is to handle the infrastructure of the website. So, for this, you should take care that your site has enough bandwidth to handle the large traffic that may be caused by malicious activity.
Earlier it was assumed that having enough bandwidth could save you from dos attacks but as technology is increasing hackers have found the way to bypass it also. So, we also use some other parameters to prevent dosing attacks.
Configure your network against DoS attacks:
There are a wide number of hardware configuration changes you can take to help prevent a DDoS attack.
For example, configure your firewall to drop incoming ICMP packets or block DNS responses from outside your network
Use anti-DDoS hardware and software modules:
The server should be secured by a number of firewalls and more specialized web applications. Many hardware vendors now include software protection against DDoS protocol attacks such as SYN flood attacks
For example, by monitoring how many incomplete connections exist like if you come on the website and leave then it is supposed to be an incomplete connection and flushing them when the number reaches a configurable threshold value.
Deploy a DDoS protection appliance:
Many security vendors including NetScout Arbor, Cisco, and Radware offer appliances that sit in front of network firewalls. And are designed to block DDoS attacks.
Protect your DNS servers:
An attacker can bring your website down by DDoSing your DNS servers. For this reason, it is important that your DNS servers are up to dated and secured, a better solution may even be to move to a cloud-based DNS provider that can offer high bandwidth and multiple points.
DDoS Tools And Techniques:
Every kind of attack or phishing requires some sort of tools and techniques. Some of the tools and techniques are mentioned below.
Techniques:
A wide number of tools and techniques are there in the market to launch a DDoS attack. But the simple and easy dos attack is primarily based on brute force, flooding the targeted website with several requests.
But it depends on the attacker that if he has sent a surplus amount of requests. One of the main ways to send a surplus number of requests can be done via botnets.
Tools:
Some of the most popular tools used for DDoS attacks are listed below
LOIC: The Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) is probably the most popular DoS tool and is preferred by most of the hackers. This tool can send a massive number of ICMP or UDP packets to the targeted website.
HOIC: The HOIC was developed by Praetox—the same developers who developed LOIC. The main difference between LOIC and HOIC is that HOIC uses an HTTP flooder using a booster file that enables a small number of users to effectively DoS a website. It is capable of simultaneously DoSing up to 256 domains.
XOIC: XOIC is another easy-to-use DoS tool. This tool is pretty easy to use and handle, the user simply needs to set the IP address and port of the target and select a protocol like (HTTP, UDP, ICMP, or TCP), then begin the flooder.
HULK: HTTP Unbearable Load King, or HULK, is another tool that is extensively capable of bringing down web servers within minutes. This tool uses various techniques to limit the ability of the target to get rid of the attack.
UDP Flooder: UDP Flooder sends a flood of UDP packets to the target.
RUDY: R-U-Dead-Yet, or RUDY, has a different approach of DoSing websites. It allows the user to select a form in the web app and then use that form to send several flood POST requests.
DAVOSET: DAVOSET (DDoS attacks via other sites execution tool) is also another DDoS tool which has been written in Perl, this tool uses zombie systems to distribute the attack across multiple systems.
Laws On DOS Attacks:
Many jurisdictions and countries have laws under which denial of service attacks is considered illegal practice.
In the US, denial-of-service attacks are considered as a federal crime under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act also some penalties include years of prisons.
The Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the US, it handles cases of DDoS.
In recent, in July 2019, Austin Thompson, aka DerpTrolling, was arrested for 27 months in prison and fined for $95,000 by the federal court for dropping multiple DDoS attacks on major video gaming companies.
In European countries, committing denial-of-service attacks may lead to an arrest warrant.
Conclusion
DDoS attacks are mostly used when someone is testing the website and its load handling capacity.
FAQ
Dos Attack is performed by a single computer attack while, DDoS attack is performed By multiple computers.
Other than using it for personal use, DDoS is used for information gathering also.
No, The answer is simply no. As there are strict laws You might have to face consequences.
Yes, We can do that. For this we will have to use other scripts like firstly gaining access to other computers networks.
No, as soon as the traffic decreases the site will be online again.
