6 Types Of Denial Of Service Attacks In Network Security
I have talked much about some of the attacks that can happen when it comes to network security in a network. In this article, I will be analysing six major types of denial of service attacks that can happen in network security. Follow me as we look at some of these attacks in this article.
Now the attacks…
#1 Denial Of Service Attacks
The first type of attack to examine is a denial of service barracks. It is an attack that aims to deny legitimate users access to a device. this type of attack does not aim at infiltrating a system or obtain sensitive information. It simply wants to prevent access to specific systems.
it is also one of the most common categories of attacks. Many experts feel that it is so common because it is a kind of attack that is very easy to execute. the ease with which this attack can be executed means that even attackers with minimum technical skills can successfully execute a DoS attack.
The concept underlying this type of attack is that every device has operational limits. this applies to all devices, not just computer systems. For examples, bridges are designed to hold weight up to a certain limit. Even aircraft have a limit at which they can travel without refuelling. All of these devices share common traits.
Computers are no different from these, or any other device. You should note that any devices or webserver have a limit.
How a workload is defined varies from one machine to another. A workload for a computer might be defined in different ways which include the number of simultaneous users, the size of files, the amount of data transmission, as well as the amount of data stored.
Exceeding any of these limits will stop the system from responding. Note that if you can flood a webserver with more requests than it can process, it will be overloaded and will no longer be able to respond to further requests.
This reality underlies the DoS attacks. Simply overload the server with too many requests and it will no longer be able to respond to legitimate users attempting to access the webserver.
#2 SYN Flood
This is done by simply sending a flood of pings which happens to be another way of performing DoS attacks. The more sophisticated method uses specific types of packets. This attack depends on hacker’s knowledge of how connections are made to the server.
When a session is initiated between the client and the server in a network using the TCP protocol, a small space buffer memory is set aside on the server to handle the “handshaking” exchange of messages that set up the session. The session establishing packet includes a SYN field that identifies the sequence in the message exchange.
A SYN flood attempts to disrupt this process. In this attack, an attacker sends a message of connection requests very rapidly and then fail to respond to the reply that is sent by the server. In o other words, the attacker request connections, and then never follows through with the rest of the connection sequence.
This has the effect of leaving connections on the server half open, and the buffer memory allocated for them is reserved and not open to other applications. Although the packets in the buffer are dropped after a certain period of time, usually about three minutes without a reply.
The effect of many of these false connections is to make it difficult for legitimate request sessions to be established.
#3 Smurf attack
This is another popular type of denial of service attack. It was named after the application was first used to carry out the attack. In the smurf attack, an ICMP packet is sent out to the broadcast address of a network, but the address has been altered to match one of the devices on the network, most likely a key server.
All the computers on the network will then respond by pinging the target computer.
ICMP packets use the Internet Control Message Protocol to send error messages on the internet. Because the address packets are sent to is a broadcast address, the address responds by echoing the packet out to all host on the network, who then send it to the spoofed IP address.
Continually sending such packet will cause the network itself to perform a DoS attack on one or more of it’s member servers. This attack is both clever and simple. the greatest difficulty is getting the packet started on the target network. This can be accomplished via some software such as a virus or Trojan horse that will begin sending the packets.
#4 Ping of Death
The Ping of Death is perhaps the simplest and the most primitive form of DoS attack and is based on overloading the target system. TCP packet has a limited size. In some cases, by simply sending a packet that is too large, it can shut down the target machine.
The aim of this attack is to overload the target system and cause it to quit responding. The PoD works to compromise systems that cannot deal with extremely large packet sizes. if successful, the server will actually shut down, it can, of course, be rebooted.
The only real safeguard against this type of attack is to ensure that all operating systems and software are routinely patched. This attack relies on vulnerabilities in a particular operating system or software handle abnormally large TCP packets. When such vulnerabilities are discovered, the vendor customarily releases a patch. The possibility of Ping of Death is one reason, among many why you must keep patches updated on all systems.
This attack is becoming less common as newer versions of operating systems are better able to handle the overly large packets that ping of death depends on. If the operating system is properly designed, it will drop oversized packets, thus negating any possible negative effect of the ping of death attack might have.
#5 UDP Flood
User Datagram Protocol is a connectionless protocol and it does not require any connection setup procedure to tractor data. TCP packets connect and wait for the recipient to acknowledge receipt before sending the next packet. Each packet is confirmed. UDP packet simply sends the packet without confirmation. This allows packets to be sent much faster, making it easier to perform DoS attacks.
A UDP flood attack occurs when an attacker sends a UDP packet to a random port on the victim’s system. When the victim receives the UDP packet, it will determine what application is waiting on the destination port. When it realizes that no application is waiting on the port, it will generate an ICMP packet of destination unreachable to the forged source address. If enough UDP packets are delivered to the ports on the victim, the system goes down.
#6 Dos Tool
One reason that DoS attacks are becoming so common is that a number of tools are available for executing DoS attacks. These tools are available on the internet and are in most cases free to download. This means that any cautious administrator should be aware of them. In there obvious use as an attack tool, they can also be useful for testing anti-DoS security measure.
#7 Low Orbit Ion Cannon
This is probably the most well known and one of the simplest DoS tool. You first put the URL or IP address into the target box. Then click the lock-on button. You can change the settings regarding what method you choose, the speed spreads and whether or not to wait for a reply. Then, simply click the IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER button and the attack is underway.
#8 High Orbit Ion Cannon
This is a bit more advanced than low Orbit Ion Cannon but it is very easy to run. Click the + button to add targets. A popup window will appear where you put in the URL as well as a few settings.
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