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Security Architecture

MIS 5214 - Section 001 - David Lanter

Security Architecture

MIS 5214.951 ■ Spring 2024 ■ Jose Gomez
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  • Schedule
    • First Half of the Course
      • Unit 0a – Introduction
      • Unit 0b – The Threat Environment
      • Unit 1a – System Security Plan
      • Unit 1b – Planning and Policy
      • Unit 2a – Case Study 1 – A High Performance Computing Cluster Under Attack: The Titan Incident
      • Unit 2b – Cryptography
      • Unit 3a – Secure Networks
      • Unit 3b – Firewalls, Intrusion Detection and Protection Systems
    • Second Half of the Course
      • Unit 4b – Case Study 2 Data Breach at Equifax
      • Unit 5a – Access Control
      • Unit 5b Host Hardening
      • Unit 6a Application Security
      • Unit 6b Data Protection
      • Unit 7a – Incident and Disaster Response
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    • Assignments
    • Case Studies
      • Case Study 1 – A High Performance Computing Cluster Under Attack: The Titan Incident
      • Case Study 2 – Data Breach at Equifax
    • Team Project Instructions
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An Introduction to DDoS Distributed Denial of Service Attack

January 1, 2022 by Jose Gomez 26 Comments

Filed Under: 3a - Secure Networks Tagged With:

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  1. Chun Liu says

    February 28, 2024 at 11:21 pm

    The main goal of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is to interrupt traffic to a Web server and make it difficult or impossible for legitimate users to access the server. This is accomplished by flooding the Web server with excessive traffic that can use all of the bandwidth used by the Web server or all of the server’s resources. Attackers typically use computer botnets to send requests to the victim server, or they use the victim server’s spoofed IP address to perform a large number of DNS lookups, so that when the DNS server responds to the request it is forwarded to the victim server. server when the DNS server responds to the request. There are several ways to help mitigate DoS attacks, such as caching as much content (HTML pages) as possible on the server, rate limiting/limiting the number of requests that can be accepted in a given time frame, load balancing to distribute incoming traffic among multiple servers, etc.

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  2. Guanhua Xiao says

    February 29, 2024 at 3:59 am

    Distributed denial of service attacks are more difficult to detect and mitigate. Distributed denial-of-service attacks are attacked, using robotic computers to send massive amounts of information to other computer users to suffocate them. So it’s hard to detect. But we can identify his statistical patterns and compare them to real-time traffic, which will help identify these attacks much earlier.

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  3. Xiaozhi Shi says

    February 29, 2024 at 7:07 am

    As mentioned in this article DDoS attacks are a simple thing to do, but they are fraught with danger. It is a form of attack in which a large number of zombie computers are used to directly or indirectly flood a target server. The large number of incoming requests to the target system forces it to slow down or even crash and shut down, thereby denying service to legitimate users or systems.There are two basic categories of DDoS attacks. Network-centric attacks overload target resources by consuming available bandwidth through packet flooding. Application layer attacks overload application services or databases with a large number of application calls.

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  4. Yawen Du says

    February 29, 2024 at 8:46 am

    In recent years, the peak traffic of DDoS attacks has been rising, and the corresponding harm and influence range have been increasing. In addition, DDoS attacks are also used as one of the means of network warfare, so their prevention and response are particularly important.
    To prevent DDoS attacks, a variety of measures can be taken, such as strengthening network security management, improving system resistance to attacks, and configuring firewalls and intrusion detection systems. At the same time, it is also necessary for the government, enterprises and individuals to work together and strengthen cooperation to deal with network security threats.

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  5. Shijie Yang says

    February 29, 2024 at 10:32 am

    A distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) is a form of attack that uses many zombie computers to inject large amounts of information into a target server and cause a blockage. Most of the time, users of zombie computers are unaware that they are being exploited by attackers. It can also cause the Web server to degrade its quality of service. DDoS is difficult to detect and mitigate by tracking down the actual attacker. There are two types of DDoS attacks, which target the network and block the Internet bandwidth used by the victim server. These weaken server resources (such as CPU, RAM, buffer memory, etc.) and make the server unable to process any legitimate requests. There are a variety of ways to prevent or mitigate DDoS, such as throttling, honeypot aggressive cash out, etc.

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  6. Xinyi Peng says

    February 29, 2024 at 9:27 pm

    A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. Unlike a traditional Denial of Service (DoS) attack, where a single source is used to flood a target, a DDoS attack employs multiple sources distributed across various networks, often making it more difficult to mitigate.

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  7. Yuanjun Xie says

    February 29, 2024 at 9:35 pm

    DDOS, also known as Distributed Denial of Service, stands for Distributed denial of service. DDOS attacks cause resource overload caused by reasonable requests, which makes services unavailable and causes the server to reject normal traffic services. I understand that there is a fixed number of rooms in a hotel, for example, there are 50 rooms in a hotel, when the 50 rooms are full, and then new users want to stay in, they must wait for the previous users to go out first. If the users who stay in the hotel do not go out, then the hotel can not welcome new users, resulting in the hotel overload, this situation is “denial of service”. If you want to continue to provide resources, then the hotel should increase their resources, the same is true of the server.
    Denial of Service Attack (DOS) : A denial of service attack is an attack that causes a target system to enter a denial of service state through various technical means, including exploiting vulnerabilities, consuming application system performance, and consuming application system bandwidth.
    Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDOS) : Distributed denial of service attack (ddos) is an advanced means of denial of service attack, using botnets distributed around the world to launch attacks, capable of producing large-scale denial of service attacks.

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  8. Zhang Yunpeng says

    February 29, 2024 at 10:27 pm

    Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are becoming increasingly difficult to detect and mitigate due to their complex nature and the use of robotic computers to send massive amounts of information, effectively suffocating other computer users. However, by identifying statistical patterns and comparing them to real-time traffic, we can detect these attacks much earlier. The rise in peak traffic of DDoS attacks in recent years, along with their increasing harm and influence range, makes their prevention and response particularly crucial. To address this, a comprehensive approach is necessary, including strengthening network security management, enhancing system resilience to attacks, and configuring firewalls and intrusion detection systems. It is also essential for governments, enterprises, and individuals to collaborate and strengthen cooperation to effectively address these network security threats. By working together, we can mitigate the impact of DDoS attacks and ensure the security and stability of our digital infrastructure.

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  9. Yujie Cao says

    February 29, 2024 at 11:00 pm

    A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the regular traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic.

    Types of DDoS attacks – There are three main types of DDoS attacks:
    1. Network-centric or volumetric attacks. These overload a targeted resource by consuming available bandwidth with packet floods. The server then overwhelms the target with responses.
    2. Protocol attacks. These target network layer or transport layer protocols use flaws in the protocols to overwhelm targeted resources. An SYN flood attack, for example, sends the target IP addresses a high volume of “initial connection request” packets using spoofed source IP addresses. This drags out the Transmission Control Protocol handshake, which can never finish because of the constant influx of requests.
    3. Application layer. Here, the application services or databases get overloaded with a high volume of application calls. The inundation of packets causes a denial of service. One example of this is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) flood attack, which is the equivalent of refreshing many web pages over and over simultaneously.

    DDOS Prevention:
    The approach would be to Equip the network, applications, and infrastructure with multi-level protection strategies, including prevention management systems that combine firewalls, VPN, anti-spam, content filtering, and other security layers to monitor activities and identity traffic inconsistencies that may be symptoms of DDoS attacks. (Defense in depth).

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  10. Shuting Zhang says

    February 29, 2024 at 11:40 pm

    There are two types of DDoS attacks – attacks that target the network (internet bandwidth) and choke the internet bandwidth used by the victim server, making it unable to accept legitimate requests from genuine users through the internet gateway, and attacks that target vulnerabilities in applications to cripple server resources like CPU, RAM, buffer memory, etc., and make the servers unavailable for handling any legitimate requests.
    For example, a DNS attack targets the network. In this scenario, many zombie computers simultaneously query DNS servers (using the spoofed IP address of the victim server). Consequently, since all the source IP addresses are of the victim server, all the responses are sent there, thereby choking the available bandwidth with the victim server.
    Similarly, a Syn Flood attack targets applications. It opens multiple connections (using multiple zombie computers) to the victim server using ‘Syn’ requests. The server responds with ‘Syn-Ack’ acknowledgment, but the zombie computers fail to send back an ‘Ack’ response, resulting in many open connections (which cannot be used by other users) in the server.
    The handlers are a small number of controlling computers which communicate with the numerous zombie computers using command and control signals, which can be intercepted to identify the handlers/master computer. However, sometimes even those communications are encrypted by attackers.

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  11. Yujie Cao says

    March 1, 2024 at 5:42 am

    A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt regular traffic to a target server, service, or network by overwhelming the target or surrounding infrastructure with large amounts of Internet traffic. These methods prevent DDoS and protect the infrastructure with DDoS attack protection solutions. Equip the network, applications, and infrastructure with a multi-level protection strategy. This may include prevention management systems that combine firewalls, VPNs, anti-spam, content filtering, and other security layers to monitor activity that may be symptomatic of a DDoS attack.

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  12. Hongli Ma says

    March 1, 2024 at 6:02 am

    DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks are a significant threat in today’s digital landscape, capable of causing widespread disruption and damage to organizations and individuals alike. What makes DDoS attacks particularly insidious is their distributed nature, utilizing multiple compromised devices to overwhelm a target with a flood of malicious traffic, rendering it inaccessible to legitimate users. This highlights the importance of proactive DDoS mitigation strategies, including network monitoring, traffic filtering, and the use of specialized DDoS protection services. Additionally, raising awareness about the impact and prevalence of DDoS attacks is crucial in fostering a cybersecurity culture that emphasizes vigilance and preparedness in the face of evolving threats.

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  13. Shuyi Dong says

    March 1, 2024 at 6:21 am

    This reading gave me a better understanding of DDoS attack prevention and mitigation strategies. While these attacks are difficult to counter, having the right techniques in place allows security teams to respond quickly in times of crisis. By carefully analyzing the statistical patterns of DDoS attacks and comparing them to real-time network traffic, we can catch early signs of an attack. This comparative analysis provides security teams with valuable intelligence, enabling them to quickly identify potential threats.

    It is worth noting that the filtering system plays an important role in this defense strategy. It effectively distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate traffic, ensuring that only legitimate packets make it through. Whether it’s done through automated tools or manually, filtering systems provide strong support for security teams.

    In addition to filtering systems, I’ve also become interested in “honeypot” technology. This technique involves setting up fake servers and deliberately exposing vulnerabilities in order to attract hackers. In this way, we can observe and analyze how hackers attack and use this valuable information to strengthen the protection of legitimate servers. Although not many organizations are currently using these techniques, they are important for improving network security.

    Overall, this reading made me realize that preventing and mitigating DDoS attacks requires a combination of techniques. By deeply analyzing attack patterns and utilizing filtering systems and “honeypot” techniques, we can better protect our networks from these malicious attacks. While these techniques may not be widely used, their potential and value cannot be ignored.

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  14. Haoran Wang says

    March 1, 2024 at 8:54 am

    After I reading the article,I think that DDoS is a very dangerous cyber attack,DDoS attack will damage the organization or personal computer and hard to defense.So,it’s very important for the user to set-up defense before DDoS attactk happen.This article make me realized good cyber security always act before the issues happens,but some company didn’t realize that ,they are alwasy act after the cyber attack happened.

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  15. Yiwei Hu says

    March 1, 2024 at 9:33 am

    The article discusses two types of DDoS attacks; One is when an attacker floods Internet bandwidth so that it cannot function properly, and the other is when an attacker targets a vulnerability in a server that makes it unable to process legitimate requests. The damage caused by DDos attacks is very serious, and it is difficult for the victim to prevent such malicious attacks, only to remedy them after they occur.A complete DDoS attack system consists of four parts: attacker, master, agent, and target. There are many ways to mitigate DDoS attacks, such as filtering illegal traffic, load balancing, throttling, using honeypots, active caching, etc

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  16. Chenhao Zhang says

    March 1, 2024 at 9:12 pm

    Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a network attack that uses client/server technology to unite multiple computers as an attack platform to launch DDoS attacks on one or more targets to exponentially increase the power of the denial of service attack. Here are some basics about DDoS attacks:
    How it works: Attackers typically install DDoS master programs on a computer using a stolen account. At a set time, the master program will communicate with a large number of agents already installed on the network. When the agent receives a command, it launches an attack. Using client/server technology, the master program can activate hundreds of agent runs in a matter of seconds.
    Attack mode: DDoS attacks use a large number of legitimate requests to occupy a large number of network resources to crash the network. The attack mode can be divided into the following types:
    By overloading the network to interfere with or even block normal network communication.
    Overload the server by submitting a large number of requests to it.
    A user is blocked from accessing the server.
    Blocking communication between a service and a specific system or individual.
    Impact and harm: The reason why DDoS attacks can frequently lose contact with websites, service paralysis, causing a huge impact is that it is simple and direct, direct attacks on the underlying connection. For example, if a hacker controls 1,000 machines, each with a bandwidth of 10 gigabytes, then the hacker has the equivalent of 10 gigabytes of traffic. When these machines launch traffic attacks to a website at the same time, the bandwidth of the target website may be occupied instantaneously, resulting in no access. Since the bandwidth scale of the vast majority of domestic websites is about 10M or 100M, enterprises are often helpless in the face of large traffic attacks.
    To prevent DDoS attacks, enterprises and individuals need to take a series of security measures, such as configuring firewalls, limiting access speed, and regularly updating software and patches. At the same time, it is also possible to establish effective defense mechanisms to deal with the increasingly complex threat of cyber attacks by cooperating with professional cyber security companies.

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  17. Zhaomeng Wang says

    March 1, 2024 at 10:00 pm

    DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack is a malicious activity aimed at overwhelming the network, servers, or applications of a target system, rendering it unable to function properly or provide services. Unlike traditional Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, DDoS attacks utilize distributed attack sources to simultaneously send a large volume of requests or packets to the target system, consuming its resources and preventing it from responding to legitimate user requests.

    DDoS attacks typically involve three main roles: the attacker, the zombie hosts, and the target system.

    1. Attacker: The attacker is the individual or organization initiating the DDoS attack. They often use malicious software or tools to control a large number of zombie hosts and instruct them to send attack traffic to the target system.

    2. Zombie Hosts: Zombie hosts are computers or devices that have been infected by the attacker. The attacker gains control over these hosts using malware such as botnets or zombie viruses. They can manipulate these zombie hosts through remote control protocols like Telnet, SSH, or malware backdoors.

    3. Target System: The target system is the network, server, or application chosen by the attacker to attack. The attacker overwhelms the target system by sending a massive amount of requests or packets, consuming its bandwidth, processing power, or other resources, causing the target system to become unavailable or unable to provide services.

    The objectives of DDoS attacks can vary, including but not limited to:

    1. Service Unavailability: Attackers consume the resources of the target system, making it unable to provide services, resulting in legitimate users being unable to access or use the system.

    2. Data Breach: Attackers may exploit the diversion of defenses caused by DDoS attacks to gain access to sensitive information or engage in other malicious activities.

    3. Brand Reputation Damage: DDoS attacks can lead to prolonged unavailability of the target system, negatively impacting the reputation of the affected organization and its brand.

    To mitigate DDoS attacks, target systems can implement the following defense measures:

    1. Traffic Filtering: Use firewalls or intrusion prevention systems (IDS/IPS) to filter out malicious traffic and prevent it from entering the target system.

    2. Load Balancing: Distribute traffic across multiple servers using load balancing devices to alleviate the load on individual servers.

    3. CDN (Content Delivery Network): Utilize CDN services to distribute traffic to servers located globally, reducing the load on a single server.

    4. Connection Limiting: Set connection limits to prevent attackers from consuming the target system’s resources through a large number of connection requests.

    5. DDoS Protection Services: Employ professional DDoS protection services that can monitor and filter out malicious traffic in real-time, ensuring the normal operation of the target system.

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  18. Hao Zhang says

    March 2, 2024 at 12:08 am

    DDoS attacks are an attempt by the attacker to create so much traffic or congestion to a target internet application, that it delays the traffic flow for the application user. What they will experience as a result of this attack is a drastic drop in speed, or even a complete outage that they don’t normally see on a daily basis. The attacker may have access to a network of hacked or compromised computers across the internet (i.e. IoT devices, personal computers, other servers on the internet). All of these attacks are at the control of the attacker which is called a Botnet, because now the attacker can remotely control this network of hacked computers as if they were an actual robot.

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  19. Yuming He says

    March 2, 2024 at 2:55 am

    DDoS attacks mainly affect the availability of resources and are difficult to detect and mitigate. All zombie computers will query the DNS server simultaneously, and when the DNS server attempts to respond, it will occupy all the bandwidth of the victim server, making it unavailable to other users. This highlights the importance of implementing appropriate security measures to prevent DDoS attacks and ensure the availability and reliability of network resources.

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  20. Yue Wang says

    March 2, 2024 at 5:16 am

    Another form of DoS attack is a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. A DDoS attack occurs when multiple systems attack a single system at the same time. For example, a group of attackers launch a coordinated attack against a single system. However, it is more common today for an attacker to first compromise multiple systems and then use those systems as a platform to launch an attack on the victim. Attackers often use botnets to launch DDoS attacks.
    Internet-facing systems are usually targeted.

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  21. Nana Li says

    March 2, 2024 at 5:43 am

    DDoS attacks are attacks in which attackers slow down the normal transmission of user traffic by creating large amounts of traffic or network congestion for targeted Internet applications. Due to the impact of such attacks, users may experience speed drops and even complete service outages, which is not common in everyday use. Attackers can use hacked or compromised computer networks on the Internet, such as iot devices, personal computers, and other Internet servers, to launch attacks. These networks of manipulated computers form a so-called “botnet” that attackers can remotely control as if they were a swarm of robots.

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  22. Xuanwen Zheng says

    March 2, 2024 at 5:43 am

    This article detailed the DDoS attack, prevention and mitigation strategies. By performing fine analysis of the statistical patterns of DDoS attacks and comparing them to real-time network traffic, we were able to capture the initial signs of the attack. Such comparative analysis provides security teams with valuable information to enable them to quickly identify potential threats. The filtering system effectively distinguishes between legitimate and illegal traffic, ensuring that only legitimate data packets pass through. Thus, the filtering system provides a strong support for the security team.

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  23. Chunqi Liu says

    March 2, 2024 at 5:57 am

    DDoS attacks are an attempt by the attacker to create so much traffic or congestion to a target internet application, that it delays the traffic flow for the application user. What they will experience as a result of this attack is a drastic drop in speed, or even a complete outage that they don’t normally see on a daily basis. The attacker may have access to a network of hacked or compromised computers across the internet (i.e. IoT devices, personal computers, other servers on the internet). All of these attacks are at the control of the attacker which is called a Botnet, because now the attacker can remotely control this network of hacked computers as if they were an actual robot.

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  24. Haixu Yao says

    March 2, 2024 at 9:58 pm

    Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is a network attack aimed at flooding a network or service with requests typically from multiple sources, rendering its users unable to access the network or service. This type of attack typically involves the use of multiple compromised computers called “zombies” or “robots”, which are remotely controlled by attackers and send large amounts of traffic to targets, making their bandwidth overwhelmed or unable to process legitimate requests. DDoS attacks can be launched in various ways, including volume attacks, protocol attacks, and application layer attacks. The impact of DDoS attacks can be severe, ranging from temporary service degradation to complete service interruption.
    To mitigate the impact of DDoS attacks, organizations may implement various defense mechanisms, including:
    Network level protection: includes firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS), and content filtering systems that can detect and block malicious traffic.
    Capacity planning: By planning the potential impact of DDoS attacks, organizations can ensure that their networks and systems have sufficient capacity to handle increased traffic loads.
    Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation services: These services are provided by third-party providers to help absorb and filter malicious traffic before it reaches the target system.
    In short, DDoS attacks pose a serious threat to the availability and security of networks and services. Organizations must understand the nature of these attacks and take appropriate measures to protect themselves from them.

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  25. Yue Ma says

    March 3, 2024 at 12:33 am

    A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is a malicious act that floods a target server or its surrounding infrastructure with massive Internet traffic in order to disrupt the normal traffic of the target server, service, or network. DDoS attacks use multiple compromised computer systems as the source of attack traffic to achieve the attack effect. The machines utilized can include computers or other networked resources (such as IoT devices).
    I realized that a DDoS attack can be compared to a traffic jam on a highway that prevents regular vehicles from reaching their intended destination.

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  26. Hao Li says

    March 3, 2024 at 6:03 am

    DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service Attack. Distributed denial of service attacks are more difficult to detect and mitigate. Distributed denial of service attack is an attack that suffocates other computer users by using zombie computers to send them large amounts of information. I also learned how it attacks, how it spreads, and the types of attacks. So I realized more that it is very difficult to detect. But we can recognize his statistical pattern and compare it with real time traffic which will help to identify these attacks earlier.
    There are two types of DDos attacks:
    1. Attacks that target the network (Internet bandwidth), blocking the Internet bandwidth used by the victim server so that it cannot accept legitimate requests from real users through the Internet gateway.
    2. Attacks that target vulnerabilities in applications to cripple server resources such as CPU, RAM, buffer memory, etc., so that the server cannot process any legitimate requests.

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READINGS & CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

  • 0a – Introduction (1)
  • 0b – The Threat Environment (5)
  • 1a – System Security Plan (4)
  • 1b – Planning and Policy (4)
  • 2a – Case Study 1 (4)
  • 2b – Cryptography (4)
  • 3a – Secure Networks (5)
  • 3b – Firewalls and IDS and IPS (3)
  • 4b – Case Study 2 (4)
  • 5a – Access Control (5)
  • 5b – Host Hardening (3)
  • 6a – Application Security (4)
  • 6b – Data Protection (2)
  • 7a – Incident and Disaster Response (3)
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