Yet Another Type of Application Layer Denial of Service Attack

Explore a sophisticated Application Layer Denial of Service attack in this conference talk from BSidesSF 2012. Delve into the often-overlooked aspect of client-side data acceptance speed and its impact on HTTP server performance. Learn about a tool that performs Slow Read Application Layer DoS attacks by exploiting TCP Persist Timer vulnerabilities. Understand how this attack keeps HTTP servers busy by requesting large resources and accepting them abnormally slowly, without requiring TCP packet crafting. Discover why a single machine can establish thousands of connections and generate legitimate HTTP requests using minimal bandwidth. Examine different attack vectors due to implementation differences among HTTP servers, and gain insights into detection and mitigation techniques for these vulnerabilities. This 50-minute presentation offers valuable knowledge for developers, administrators, and security professionals seeking to enhance their understanding of application layer security threats.