Best DOS Attacks and Free DOS Attacking Tools
DOS is an attack used to deny legitimate users access to a resource such as accessing a website, network, emails, etc. or making it extremely slow. DoS is the acronym for Denial of Service. This type of attack is usually implemented by hitting the target resource such as a web server with too many requests at the same time. This results in the server failing to respond to all the requests. The effect of this can either be crashing the servers or slowing them down.
Attacks involving multiple computers or other devices all targeting the same victim are considered DDoS attacks due to their distributed design. Of the two, DDoS attacks are more prevalent and damaging in the modern Internet. Due to the the relative simplicity of purchasing or creating a group of malicious machines capable of sending a massive amount of Internet traffic to a target, bad actors are able to use networks of devices such as botnets to flood a target with requests. By utilizing a large network of machines infected with malware, a malicious actor is able to leverage the attack traffic of a large number of computer systems. With the rise of poorly secured Internet of Things (IoT) devices, more electronic hardware is able to be commandeered for nefarious purposes.
Not all distributed attacks involve botnets; some attack tools leverage volunteers who work together by sharing their available computer resources to take part in a common goal. The hacker group Anonymous has used DoS and DDoS tools, coupled with willing parties, for this very purpose.
How are DoS/DDoS attack tools categorized?
A number of different attack tools or “stressors” are available for free on the Internet. At their core, some of these tools have legitimate purposes, as security researchers and network engineers may at times perform stress tests against their own networks. Some attack tools are specialized and only focus on a particular area of the protocol stack, while others will be designed to allow for multiple attack vectors.
Attack tools can be broadly characterized into several groups:
Low and slow attack tools
As the name implies, these types of attack tools both use a low volume of data and operate very slowly. Designed to send small amounts of data across multiple connections in order to keep ports on a targeted server open as long as possible, these tools continue to utilize server resources until a targeted server is unable to maintain additional connections. Uniquely, low and slow attacks may at times be effective even when not using a distributed system such as a botnet and are commonly used by a single machine.
Application layer (L7) attack tools
These tools target layer 7 of the OSI model, where Internet-based requests such as HTTP occur. Using a type of HTTP flood attack to overwhelm a target with HTTP GET and POST requests, a malicious actor can launch attack traffic that is difficult to distinguish from normal requests made by actual visitors.
Protocol and transport layer (L3/L4) attack tools
Going further down the protocol stack, these tools utilize protocols like UDP to send large volumes of traffic to a targeted server, such as during a UDP flood. While often ineffective individually, these attacks are typically found in the form of DDoS attacks where the benefit of additional attacking machines increases the effect.
What have commonly used DoS/DDoS attack tools?
A few commonly used tools include:
Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC)
The LOIC is an open-source stress testing application. It allows for both TCP and UDP protocol layer attacks to be carried out using a user-friendly WYSIWYG interface. Due to the popularity of the original tool, derivatives have been created that allow attacks to be launched using a web browser.
High Orbit Ion Cannon (HOIC)
This attack tool was created to replace the LOIC by expanding its capabilities and adding customizations. By utilizing the HTTP protocol, the HOIC is able to launch targeted attacks that are difficult to mitigate. The software is designed to have a minimum of 50 people working together in a coordinated attack effort.
Slowloris
Apart from being a slow-moving primate, Slowloris is an application designed to instigate a low and slow attack on a targeted server. The elegance of Slowloris is the limited amount of resources it needs to consume in order to create a damaging effect.
R.U.D.Y (R-U-Dead-Yet)
R.U.D.Y. is another low and slow attack tool designed to allow the user to easily launch attacks using a simple point-and-click interface. By opening multiple HTTP POST requests and then keeping those connections open as long as possible, the attack aims to slowly overwhelm the targeted server.
How DoS attacks work
Let’s look at how DoS attacks are performed and the techniques used. We will look at five common types of attacks.
Ping of Death
The ping command is usually used to test the availability of a network resource. It works by sending small data packets to the network resource. The ping of death takes advantage of this and sends data packets above the maximum limit (65,536 bytes) that TCP/IP allows. TCP/IP fragmentation breaks the packets into small chunks that are sent to the server. Since the sent data packages are larger than what the server can handle, the server can freeze, reboot, or crash.
Smurf
This type of attack uses large amounts of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping traffic target at an Internet Broadcast Address. The reply IP address is spoofed to that of the intended victim. All the replies are sent to the victim instead of the IP used for the pings. Since a single Internet Broadcast Address can support a maximum of 255 hosts, a smurf attack amplifies a single ping 255 times. The effect of this is slowing down the network to a point where it is impossible to use it.
Buffer overflow
A buffer is a temporal storage location in RAM that is used to hold data so that the CPU can manipulate it before writing it back to the disc. Buffers have a size limit. This type of attack loads the buffer with more data that it can hold. This causes the buffer to overflow and corrupt the data it holds. An example of a buffer overflow is sending emails with file names that have 256 characters.
Teardrop
This type of attack uses larger data packets. TCP/IP breaks them into fragments that are assembled on the receiving host. The attacker manipulates the packets as they are sent so that they overlap each other. This can cause the intended victim to crash as it tries to re-assemble the packets.
SYN attack
SYN is a short form for Synchronize. This type of attack takes advantage of the three-way handshake to establish communication using TCP. SYN attack works by flooding the victim with incomplete SYN messages. This causes the victim machine to allocate memory resources that are never used and deny access to legitimate users.
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