Types of DoS attacks

DoS attacks are attempts to interrupt a website or network's operations by overwhelming it with traffic. The attacker achieves this by sending an enormous amount of requests to the target server, which causes it to slow down or even crash, making it inaccessible to legitimate users. In this article, we will learn about what is a DoS attack, the types of DoS attacks, the Prevention of DoS attacks, and how it impacts our business.

What is a Denial of Service (DoS) Attack?

Denial of service (DOS) is a network security attack, in which, the hacker makes the system or data unavailable to someone who needs it. Hacker tries to make a network, system, or machine unavailable by flooding it with fake requests or traffic. This prevents real users from accessing it, causing anything from slowdowns to complete shutdowns.

Types of DoS Attacks

1. Volume-Based Attacks: Volume-based attacks flood a network with too much data, overpowering its bandwidth and making the network unusable. Examples include UDP floods and ICMP floods. In a UDP flood, attackers send many UDP packets to random ports on a server, making the server busy trying to handle all these requests, which slows down or stops legitimate traffic.

2. Protocol Attacks: Protocol attacks exploit weaknesses in network protocols to use up server resources. Examples are SYN floods and the Ping of Death. In a SYN flood, attackers send many SYN requests to a server but don’t complete the handshake, leaving the server stuck with half-open connections. The Ping of Death involves sending oversized packets to crash or disrupt the target server.

3. Application Layer Attacks: Application layer attacks target specific applications or services, causing them to crash or become very slow. Examples include HTTP floods and Slowloris. In an HTTP flood, attackers send many HTTP requests to a web server, consuming its resources. Slowloris keeps many connections to the server open by sending incomplete HTTP requests, preventing the server from handling new, legitimate requests.

4. Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks: DDoS attacks use multiple systems, often compromised computers (botnets), to attack a single target. Examples are amplification attacks and botnet-based attacks. In an amplification attack, attackers use services like DNS to send a small query that generates a large response, flooding the victim with data. Botnets coordinate many infected computers to send attack traffic from multiple sources, making it hard to defend against.

5. Resource Exhaustion: This is when the hacker repeatedly requests access to a resource and eventually overloads the web application. The application slows down and finally crashes. In this case, the user is unable to get access to the webpage.

6. Reflective Attacks: Reflective attacks involve sending requests to third-party servers with the victim’s IP address. The servers unknowingly send responses to the victim, overwhelming it. Examples are DNS reflection and NTP reflection. In a DNS reflection attack, attackers send requests to a DNS server with the victim’s IP address, causing the DNS server to flood the victim with responses. NTP reflection works similarly but uses Network Time Protocol servers to amplify the attack.

Here are some of the other types of attacks that can have severe consequences, ranging from inconvenience and financial loss to serious breaches of privacy and security of various types.

• Browser Redirection: This happens when you are trying to reach a webpage, but, another page with a different URL opens. You can view only the directed page and are unable to view the contents of the original page. This is because the hacker has redirected the original page to a different page.

• Closing Connections: After closing the connection, there can be no communication between the sender(server) and the receiver (client). The hacker closes the open connection and prevents the user from accessing resources.

• Data Destruction: This is when the hacker destroys the resource so that it becomes unavailable. He might delete the resources, erase, wipe, overwrite, or drop tables for data destruction.

• Resource Exhaustion: This is when the hacker repeatedly requests access to a resource and eventually overloads the web application. The application slows down and finally crashes. In this case, the user is unable to get access to the webpage.

How Do DoS Attacks Impact Businesses and Users?

DoS attacks can have severe consequences for businesses and users alike. Here are some impacts of DoS attacks:

• Loss of Revenue: DoS attacks can cause businesses to lose significant amounts of revenue as customers are unable to access their website or service.
• Damage to Reputation: DoS attacks can damage a company's reputation and erode the trust of its customers.
• Financial Losses: The cost of mitigating a DoS attack can be significant, and businesses may also have to pay for lost revenue, legal fees and damages.
• Disruption of Critical Services: DoS attacks can disrupt critical services, such as healthcare and emergency services, which can have life-threatening consequences.
• Loss of Data: Data destruction attacks can cause businesses to lose critical data, leading to financial losses and damage to the company's reputation.

Preventing DoS Attacks

There are several measures businesses can take to prevent DoS attacks, including:

• Implementing DDoS protection solutions that can detect and mitigate DoS attacks in real time.
• Ensuring their website and network infrastructure is up-to-date with the latest security patches.
• Using strong authentication mechanisms, such as multi-factor authentication, to prevent unauthorized access to the network.
• Monitoring network traffic to detect unusual patterns and take immediate action to prevent potential attacks.

Conclusion

DoS attacks are a serious threat to businesses and users alike. They can cause significant financial losses, damage to reputation, and even life-threatening consequences. Understanding the different types of DoS attacks and implementing appropriate security measures can help businesses mitigate the risks of DoS attacks and protect their assets and customers.