Hack I.T.: Security Through Penetration Testing

Chapter 21. Denial-of-Service Attacks

Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks are possibly the most advertised of all hacker attacks, with the exception of Web site defacements, but can be more sophisticated—and more costly—than acts of cyber vandalism. DoS attacks and tools have been the bane of the security profession. The purpose of this chapter is to help you become more familiar with how DoS tools work. In addition, DoS attacks can and at some point should be incorporated into penetration testing. It is better to find out your site is susceptible to a DoS attack during a scheduled test than during peak production times when a hacker brings down the site.

The concept of a DoS attack is to do whatever it takes to make a service unavailable to those ...