What Is a Volumetric DDoS Attack?

Introduction to Volumetric DDoS Attacks

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks have emerged as one of the most disruptive threats in today’s digital landscape. These attacks aim to overwhelm the resources of online systems, such as servers, networks, or applications, eventually making services inaccessible to legitimate users. Among the various types of DDoS attacks, volumetric attacks are particularly notable for their prevalence and devastating impact, largely due to their brute-force techniques.

But how do DDoS attacks work, and why are they so impactful?

This article delves into the concept, execution techniques, consequences, detection methods, and defense strategies related to volumetric DDoS attacks. It will highlight how these attacks differ from other forms of cyber threats and outline what organizations can do to safeguard themselves.

What Is a Volumetric DDoS Attack?

A volumetric DDoS attack is a type of denial-of-service attack that focuses on overwhelming a target’s available bandwidth or network capacity by flooding it with excessive volumes of data. This form of attack primarily targets Layer 3 (Network) and Layer 4 (Transport) of the OSI model, distinguishing it from application-layer DDoS attacks, which target specific services.

The main objective of a volumetric attack is straightforward yet effective: to saturate the target’s internet connection with traffic, leading to bandwidth exhaustion, increased latency, or complete network failure. These attacks are often executed using botnets—collections of compromised computers and IoT devices—which allow attackers to generate large amounts of malicious traffic from multiple sources.

Volumetric attacks are typically measured in bits per second (bps), packets per second (pps), or connections per second (cps), and they account for over 75% of DDoS incidents worldwide. It is important to understand the dangers of DDoS attacks for both businesses and individuals and to recognize the significance of protecting your network infrastructure.

Common Techniques Used in Volumetric DDoS Attacks

Volumetric attacks often take advantage of standard network protocols or publicly accessible internet services that can be manipulated to reflect and amplify attack traffic. Here are the main techniques used in these attacks:

1. UDP Flood

This technique involves sending a large volume of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets to random ports on a target system.
As the target tries to process or respond to these packets, it can quickly deplete its bandwidth and CPU resources.
The attack may also use fragmented packets, making traffic inspection more complex and increasing the rate of packets per second in the flood.

2. ICMP Flood

3. DNS Amplification Attack

A DNS amplification attack takes advantage of open DNS resolvers to reflect and amplify traffic directed at a victim's IP address.
A small query can trigger a disproportionately large response, sometimes by as much as 50 times.
This technique allows for massive DDoS bandwidth saturation with relatively minimal effort.

4. SYN Flood (TCP Out-of-State Flood)

A SYN flood involves sending TCP connection requests (SYN packets) without completing the handshake process.
This causes the server to maintain half-open connections, consuming its memory and processing power. As a result, it can lead to capacity overrun attacks.
Understanding the difference between DoS and DDoS attacks helps clarify how SYN floods and other volumetric tactics exploit network protocols.

5. Reflection Amplification Attacks

A summary of all the different attacks :

Attack Type	Protocol Used	Layer	Common Goal	Amplification?
UDP Flood	UDP	L4	Packet flood	No
ICMP Flood	ICMP	L3	Echo request saturation	No
DNS Amplification	DNS/UDP	L7/L4	High-bandwidth reflection	Yes
SYN Flood	TCP	L4	Connection table exhaust	No
Reflection Amplification	Varies	L3/L4	Bandwidth exhaustion	Yes

How Volumetric DDoS Affects Network Infrastructure

The damage caused by a volumetric DDoS attack can be both immediate and extensive:

Network Congestion: A high volume of traffic can cause internet pipe flooding, hindering normal communication.
Packet Loss and Latency: The influx of DDoS traffic can result in legitimate traffic being dropped or delayed.
Device Overload: Firewalls, routers, and servers may crash when overwhelmed by excessive packets per second floods.
Service Disruption: Applications can become inaccessible, negatively impacting business operations, revenue, and user trust.
Security Blind Spots: Volumetric attacks often serve as smoke screens. For security teams, this allows more targeted exploits to occur simultaneously.

Organizations with inadequate infrastructure or insufficient mitigation measures often face prolonged outages and costly recovery efforts. Internet Service Providers – ISPs address large DDoS attacks by employing advanced filtering and mitigation techniques to minimize their impact on the overall network.

Detection and Mitigation Strategies For Volumetric DDoS

Detecting volumetric DDoS attacks is often more straightforward than identifying stealthy application-layer attacks. To defend against these types of attacks, organizations can implement specific methods.

1. Detection

Flow Telemetry Analysis: Tools such as NetFlow, sFlow, JFlow, and IPFIX help monitor traffic patterns effectively.
Behavioral Baselines: By understanding normal traffic flows, organizations can more quickly identify anomalies indicative of DDoS traffic.
Traffic Spikes: Sudden increases in traffic volume, whether in gigabits or terabits, can signal volumetric activity. AI-based technologies for DDoS attack detection can provide real-time identification of these traffic surges.

2. Mitigation

Rate Limiting: This technique controls the number of connections allowed per second, which helps reduce the impact of packet floods. By doing Rate limiting,servers are less likely to become overwhelmed.
Web Application Firewall (WAF): Typically used for Layer 7 protection, WAFs filter unexpected traffic volumes and can also defend against DDoS attacks across multiple layers.
DDoS Scrubbing Services: These external providers absorb and filter out malicious traffic before it reaches the target server, helping to maintain service availability.
Positive Security Models: This approach proactively defines and permits only known good traffic and protocols, enhancing security.
Scalable Cloud-Based Firewalls: These firewalls are more effective at managing surges in DDoS bandwidth compared to traditional on-premise systems.

Implementing a multilayered mitigation strategy ensures faster response times and recovery from traffic-based DDoS attacks. Additionally, using behavioral analytics in DDoS protection can fine-tune responses and prevent malicious traffic from bypassing defenses.

Volumetric DDoS vs. Other DDoS Types

All DDoS attacks aim to disrupt services, but volumetric DDoS attacks are distinct due to their specific methods and scale.

Attack Type	Focus Layer	Method	Bandwidth Usage
Volumetric	L3/L4	Bandwidth saturation	High
Protocol-based	L3/L4	Protocol exploitation	Moderate
Application-layer (L7)	L7	Specific app/service abuse	Low

Volumetric attacks primarily rely on overwhelming traffic volume and brute force methods, while protocol and application-layer DDoS attacks focus on more subtle and targeted disruptions. If you’re curious about what an API DDoS attack is, they are a specific subtype that targets API services and applications directly.

Real-World Challenges of Volumetric DDoS

Real-world cases highlight the increasing threat of volumetric DDoS attacks:

1996 Panix SYN Flood: This was one of the earliest recorded volumetric attacks, which disabled a major ISP in New York City for 36 hours.
2012 Anonymous Attacks: This campaign involved a botnet-driven DDoS attack targeting high-profile organizations using massive volumetric techniques.
2020 AWS Attack: A record-setting CLDAP reflection attack reached 2.3 Tbps, demonstrating the evolving scale and power of botnet-driven DDoS events.

These examples illustrate not only the potential devastation of such attacks but also the complexity of mitigating large-scale bandwidth exhaustion scenarios.

So, how can CDNs help prevent DDoS attacks? By caching content and absorbing traffic, CDNs significantly reduce the impact of volumetric DDoS attacks.

Safeguarding Against Volumetric DDoS Attacks

What is a volumetric DDoS attack? It is one of the most powerful and common forms of cyberattacks, relying on high-volume traffic to overwhelm network capacity and take services offline. Unlike more subtle types of DDoS attacks, volumetric attacks are noisy and overwhelming. However, they can still act as distractions for more sophisticated intrusions.

Organizations must adopt a comprehensive and proactive defense strategy that combines flow analysis, rate limiting, and cloud-based DDoS protection services. By understanding Layer 3, 4, and 7 DDoS attacks and preparing accordingly, businesses can improve their resilience against the increasing threat of cyberattacks. Additionally, how does machine learning help in stopping DDoS attacks? By analyzing traffic patterns, AI systems can detect and mitigate volumetric DDoS attacks before they reach their full impact.

Prophaze DDoS Protection for Volumetric Attacks

As volumetric DDoS attacks continue to evolve and pose significant risks to online infrastructure, businesses require effective solutions to safeguard their networks and applications. Prophaze DDoS Protection offers a comprehensive defense against these large-scale attacks, utilizing advanced technologies to detect, mitigate, and prevent the impact of traffic-based threats.

By employing sophisticated algorithms and real-time traffic analysis, Prophaze ensures that organizations can maintain uptime and security, even during the most severe DDoS assaults. Whether it involves protecting websites, APIs, or critical infrastructure, Prophaze’s solution helps prevent bandwidth exhaustion and guarantees that legitimate users can access services without interruption.

For businesses aiming to stay ahead of the curve and defend against the increasing threat of volumetric DDoS attacks, Prophaze DDoS Protection provides a reliable, scalable, and proactive defense solution.

What Is a Volumetric DDoS Attack?

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