In the DoS reflection attack, an attacker spoofs the source IP address of all the packets (What is IP Address Spoofing ?) and sends those request messages to other hosts in the network. The attacker uses the victim’s IP address as the source IP address of the outgoing request messages. Hence, all other hosts send responses to the victim’s machine. At this point, if the attacker has a much higher bandwidth than the victim’s machine, the victim’s machine gets lots of responses that use up all its network bandwidth. As a result, the victim’s machine becomes no longer available for legitimate requests. This is called the DoS reflection attack.

The DNS amplification attack is also a type of reflection attack. In this attack, the attacker sends lots of DNS queries to a DNS server but forges the IP address of the victim’s machine as the source IP. As a result, the DNS server ends up sending all the responses to the victim’s machine. As the DNS responses are much larger in size, the victim’s machine ends up getting flooded with the responses that use up all its bandwidth.

You can get more information on how to prevent DDoS attacks here: How to protect servers from DoS and DDoS attacks?

So, beware of various security vulnerabilities so that you can protect your systems in a better way and stay safe and protected. Interested readers who want to know more about how different web application attacks work and how to prevent them may want to refer to the book “Web Application Vulnerabilities And Prevention.”

Security Fundamentals Practice Tests

The Security Fundamentals Practice Tests test one’s fundamental knowledge of cyber security. The practice tests are good for those who are preparing for various certification exams like the CCNA, CCNP, or CompTIA. They are also good for students and IT/security professionals who want to improve their understanding of cybersecurity.