Analysis Summary

Researchers recently reported blocking the largest-ever distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which peaked at 5.6 Tbps. The attack, conducted on October 29, 2024, targeted an unnamed internet service provider (ISP) in Eastern Asia. Originating from a Mirai-variant botnet, the UDP-based attack involved over 13,000 IoT devices and lasted only 80 seconds.

According to the Researcher, With an average of 5,500 unique IP addresses contributing approximately 1 Gbps each, the scale and speed of the attack underscored the evolving threat of IoT-based DDoS campaigns. This milestone surpasses the previous record of 3.8 Tbps, which was reported earlier in the same month.

In 2024, Researchers blocked approximately 21.3 million DDoS attacks, reflecting a 53% increase from 2023. Attacks exceeding 1 Tbps rose dramatically by 1,885% quarter-over-quarter. In Q4 alone, 6.9 million DDoS attacks were mitigated, with 72% of HTTP-based and 91% of network-layer attacks ending in under 10 minutes. Known DDoS botnets were responsible for 72.6% of all HTTP DDoS activity, while the most common Layer 3/Layer 4 attack vectors included SYN floods (38%), DNS floods (16%), and UDP floods (14%). Additionally, certain DDoS attack methods, such as Memcached, BitTorrent, and ransom-based assaults, saw significant quarterly increases of 314%, 304%, and 78%, respectively.

Geographically, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ukraine, and Argentina emerged as the largest sources of DDoS attacks, while China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Germany were the most targeted countries. The telecommunications, internet, marketing, information technology, and gambling sectors faced the highest volumes of attacks, highlighting the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and industries. The researcher’s findings reflect the growing sophistication and scale of DDoS campaigns, posing a significant challenge to global cybersecurity efforts.

The researcher revealed and emphasized the role of Mirai botnet variants in exploiting IoT vulnerabilities. These offshoots leverage known security flaws and weak credentials to command IoT devices, turning them into conduits for massive DDoS attacks. The surge in IoT-based botnet activity underscores the urgent need for stronger IoT device security measures to mitigate the risks posed by such large-scale attacks.

Impact

• DDoS
• Financial Loss

Indicators of Compromise

SHA1

• 69e26a445f8eea1ab8b8363d3ff946e9d62eb84f

• b666bad55d0f0b1feff26e4fdef60db6ef67ed12

• 0223aa19a8fe4fa4dd8734cedb2288ddde3a9a4e

• 87ad51d55b097d859f3186fb961abe6331595968

• 175026bcd9a6a8904ebd4cd29d16a315e984fa60

• f3628ead2ff40c4befdeecfbfe232a849f13cf8e

• c860f361ff4531332809ac7db2062e01a64be672

• 9afd6507697281e994be829f230bb6454ba603a3

• a54334cb3187689457b04ed98d799b15288d029e

Remediation

• Block all threat indicators at your respective controls.
• Search for indicators of compromise (IOCs) in your environment utilizing your respective security controls.
• Never trust or open links and attachments received from unknown sources/senders.
• Upgrade your operating system.
• Enable antivirus and anti-malware software and update signature definitions on time. Using multi-layered protection is necessary to secure vulnerable assets.
• Immediately change default passwords on IoT devices to unique ones.
• Keep devices' firmware and software up to date to ensure that known vulnerabilities are patched.
• Implement firewalls and intrusion detection systems to monitor and control traffic to and from IoT devices.
• Employ tools that can identify unusual behavior or traffic patterns that might indicate a DDoS attack or a compromised device.
• Disable any unnecessary services or features on IoT devices to reduce their attack surface.
• Follow security best practices, such as disabling remote management if not needed and enabling security features provided by the device manufacturer.
• Deploy intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) to monitor for anomalous or malicious network activity.
• Set up alerts for unusual traffic patterns that might indicate a DDoS attack or a compromised device.
• Use cloud-based DDoS mitigation services that can absorb large-scale attacks.
• Install on-premise DDoS protection appliances for real-time monitoring and traffic filtering.
• Configure rate-limiting and traffic-shaping rules to manage incoming requests effectively.
• Implement strong authentication mechanisms, such as unique credentials and multi-factor authentication (MFA), for IoT devices.
• Regularly update IoT device firmware to patch known vulnerabilities.
• Disable unused services and ports to reduce the attack surface.