Hell of a Handshake - Abusing TCP for Reflective Amplification DDoS Attacks

Explore the vulnerabilities of TCP protocols in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks through this 16-minute conference talk from USENIX WOOT '14. Delve into the concept of amplification attacks, where attackers exploit public hosts to reflect larger responses to victims using spoofed source addresses. Examine how TCP-based protocols, despite the three-way handshake mechanism, can be abused for amplification attacks. Learn about the researchers' Internet-wide scans that identified thousands of amplifiers capable of magnifying attacks by a factor of 50 or more. Gain insights into the unforeseen ways Internet devices react during connection establishment, potentially exacerbating the amplification effect.