There are several types of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, including:
- Volumetric Attacks: These flood the target with a high volume of traffic, overwhelming its bandwidth and resources. Examples include UDP flood and ICMP flood attacks.
- Protocol Attacks: These exploit vulnerabilities in network protocols to exhaust resources or crash services. Examples include SYN flood and Ping of Death attacks.
- Application Layer Attacks: These target specific applications or services to exhaust their resources or disrupt their functionality. Examples include HTTP flood and Slowloris attacks.
- Distributed DoS (DDoS) Attacks: These involve multiple compromised systems (botnets) coordinating to attack a single target simultaneously, increasing attack effectiveness and difficulty in mitigation.
There are numerous types of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, categorized by their methods and targets. Common types include:
- Volumetric Attacks: These flood the target with a massive volume of traffic, such as UDP floods or ICMP floods.
- Protocol Attacks: These exploit weaknesses in network protocols, like SYN floods or Ping of Death attacks.
- Application Layer Attacks: These target specific applications or services to overwhelm them, such as HTTP floods or Slowloris attacks.
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: These use multiple sources to coordinate attacks, overwhelming the target with traffic from many different points simultaneously.
DoS, or Denial of Service, refers to an attack that aims to disrupt or deny access to a network, service, or resource for legitimate users. It typically involves overwhelming the target with traffic, requests, or malicious data to exhaust its resources or crash its services. Types of DoS attacks vary based on the techniques used and the specific vulnerabilities they exploit, ranging from flooding attacks to protocol exploitation and application layer manipulation.
The stages of a DoS attack typically include:
- Preparation: Attackers identify vulnerabilities, gather information about the target, and prepare tools or scripts for launching the attack.
- Launch: Attackers initiate the attack by sending a large volume of traffic, requests, or malicious data to the target system or network.
- Impact: The target system or network becomes overwhelmed, causing legitimate users to experience service disruptions or denial of access.
- Persistence: Attackers may attempt to prolong the attack or evade detection by adjusting tactics, changing attack vectors, or masking their identities.
- Cleanup: After achieving their goals, attackers may cover their tracks, remove evidence, or exploit the aftermath of the attack for further malicious activities.
A common DoS attack is the SYN flood attack. In this type of attack, the attacker sends a large number of SYN (synchronization) requests to a target server but does not complete the handshake process by sending the final ACK (acknowledgment) packet. This floods the server’s connection queue with half-open connections, exhausting its resources and preventing legitimate users from establishing connections with the server. SYN flood attacks exploit the TCP three-way handshake process vulnerability, making them effective against unprotected or poorly configured servers and network devices.
