What is a tarpit and how does it improve security?

by | Mar 2, 2017 | Anti-Spam, CCNA, CCNP, CompTIA, Malware Prevention

What is a tarpit?

A tarpit is a security mechanism against computer worms and network abuses like spamming. It acts by purposefully delaying network connections so that attackers are less attracted to attacks. The concept is analogous to a tar pit, where animals get bogged down and slowly sink under the surface.

How does a tarpit work?

Tarpits can work in the following ways:

    • Tarpits can work by delaying authentication procedures when a user gives an invalid password. The response time becomes so much that the attackers find breaking the authentication system with various passwords less attractive.
    • Tarpits can increase the transfer time of all emails by a few seconds by delaying the initial greeting message. It does not make much difference to a legitimate user if sending an email takes a few seconds longer, but it affects the spammers due to the high volume of emails.
    • Some email systems delay only known spammers with a special purpose daemon so that the spammers end up spending lots of time in spamming or they leave it.
    • Another idea is to greylisting users. In this case, if any connection request comes from a previously unseen IP address, the first connection is refused. A legitimate user will try again, but a spammer will get discouraged. Most spammers make only one attempt for making connections.
    • Sometimes, a spam filter even tries to guess if a message is going to be spam and adds delay accordingly. If the message is more likely to be spam, the delay is more.

So, the basic idea is that a delay in making connections or authentication procedures or email transfer time does not make so much difference to a legitimate user as it does to a spammer. And that’s the psychology behind tarpits.

I hope this helps! Interested readers who want to know more about how various malware and cyberattacks work may want to refer to the book “A Guide To Cyber Security.”

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Amrita Mitra

Author

Ms. Amrita Mitra is an author, who has authored the books “Cryptography And Public Key Infrastructure“, “Web Application Vulnerabilities And Prevention“, “A Guide To Cyber Security” and “Phishing: Detection, Analysis And Prevention“. She is also the founder of Asigosec Technologies, the company that owns The Security Buddy.

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