P2P Networks Used in DDOS Attacks

May 24, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web analytics firm Netcraft (netcraft.com) reported on Wednesday that peer-to-peer networks are being hijacked to launch an increasing number of distributed denial of service attacks on Web sites.

According to security researchers including Prolexic Technologies, and network service providers, the attacks see large numbers of client computers running P2P software tricked into requesting a file from the intended target of the DDOS, enabling the attacker to use the P2P network to overwhelm the target site with traffic.

Prolexic says that many of the recent attacks exploited the dc++ open source peer-to-peer client for Windows machines using the direct connect file-sharing protocol. On their blog, the developers of dc++ acknowledge that the software is being used in DDOS attacks and assure that recent updates have addressed the security holes, says Netcraft.

According to Prolexic, as many as 100,000 machines have been used in some of the attacks. The company believes that peer-to-peer DDOS attacks may be attractive to attackers because they don't require the use of an existing "botnet" of compromised computers.

Last week, Netcraft released a report stating that its SSL Survey has found more than 600,000 SSL sites on the Internet for the first time since its 10 years of running.