Availability / Denial of Service

Description

Denial of Service (DoS) is a type of IT vulnerability that affects the availability of systems. DoS can occur when a malicious actor intentionally floods a network or system with a large amount of traffic, requests, or connections. Additionally, certain specifically crafted messages may cause a high resource consumption on the target system. This can cause the system to exhaust its resources, resulting in a loss of availability of services and resources. DoS attacks occur in Infrastructure, Web and API components. OWASP provides additional examples for DoS attacks.

Risk

DoS attacks can cause significant disruption to businesses as they can result in a complete loss of availability of services and resources. This can lead to a significant financial loss due to a disruption in services and resources. Additionally, DoS attacks can also lead to a decrease in customer trust and satisfaction.

Solution

The best way to prevent DoS attacks is to implement proper network and system security measures. Network security measures such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and web application firewalls can be used to detect and prevent malicious traffic from entering the network or system. Additionally, system security measures such as rate limiting and access control lists can be used to limit the amount of traffic or requests that can enter the network or system. The system could also require a solution to a challenge, like a CAPTCHA or Proof of Work, before performing a certain action on behalf of the user, in order to limit the amount of processing that needs to be done.