Cloudflare blocks an almost 2 Tbps multi-vector DDoS attack

Cloudflare blocks an almost 2 Tbps multi-vector DDoS attack
Cloudflare blocks an almost 2 Tbps multi-vector DDoS attack

Earlier this week, Cloudflare automatically detected and mitigated a DDoS attack that peaked just below 2 Tbps — the largest we’ve seen to date. This was a multi-vector attack combining DNS amplification attacks and UDP floods. The entire attack lasted just one minute. The attack was launched from approximately 15,000 bots running a variant of the original Mirai code on IoT devices and unpatched GitLab instances.

Cloudflare blocks an almost 2 Tbps multi-vector DDoS attack
DDoS attack peaking just below 2 Tbps‌‌

Network-layer DDoS attacks increased by 44%

Last quarter, we saw multiple terabit-strong DDoS attacks and this attack continues this trend of increased attack intensity. Another key finding from our Q3 DDoS Trends report was that network-layer DDoS attacks actually increased by 44% quarter-over-quarter. While the fourth quarter is not over yet, we have, again, seen multiple terabit-strong attacks that targeted Cloudflare customers.

Cloudflare blocks an almost 2 Tbps multi-vector DDoS attack
DDoS attacks peaking at 1-1.4 Tbps

How did Cloudflare mitigate this attack?

To begin with, our systems constantly analyze traffic samples “out-of-path” which allows us to asynchronously detect DDoS attacks without causing latency or impacting performance. Once the attack traffic was detected (within sub-seconds), our systems generated a real-time signature that surgically matched against the attack patterns to mitigate the attack without impacting Continue reading

Interesting: What’s Wrong with Bitcoin

I read tons of articles debunking the blockchain hype, and the stupidity of waisting CPU cycles and electricity on calculating meaningless hashes; here’s a totally different take on the subject by Avery Pennarun (an update written ten years later).

TL&DR: Bitcoin is a return to gold standard, and people who know more about economy than GPUs and hash functions have figured out that’s a bad idea long time ago.

Arista Adds New Hyperscale, Enterprise Switches To Its 400G Portfolio

Arista Networks announced four new switches in its 400G portfolio. Two are aimed at the hyperscale/cloud crowd, and two are intended for enterprise data centers. The new switches promise greater port density than previous generations, and better power efficiency. The hyperscale switches are built around Broadcom’s Tomahawk-4 silicon, which delivers 25.6Tbps of throughput. They include […]

The post Arista Adds New Hyperscale, Enterprise Switches To Its 400G Portfolio appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Fixing Recent Validation Vulnerabilities in OctoRPKI

Fixing Recent Validation Vulnerabilities in OctoRPKI

A number of vulnerabilities in Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) validation software were disclosed in a recent NCSC advisory, discovered by researchers from the University of Twente. These attacks abuse a set of assumptions that are common across multiple RPKI implementations, and some of these issues were discovered within OctoRPKI. More details about the disclosed vulnerabilities can be found in this RIPE labs article written by one of the researchers. In response, we published a new release of OctoRPKI, v1.4.0, to address and remediate these vulnerabilities.

Cloudflare customers do not have to take any action to protect themselves from these newly discovered vulnerabilities, and no Cloudflare customer data was ever at risk.

We have not seen any attempted exploitation of these vulnerabilities described in the advisory. We use OctoRPKI to perform Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) route validation so that our routers know where to direct IP packets at Layer 3 of the TCP/IP stack. TLS provides additional security at the TCP layer to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of customer data going over the Internet in the event of BGP hijacking.

RPKI and the discovered vulnerabilities

Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) is a cryptographic method of Continue reading

Nvidia jumps into Zero Trust

Nvidia has announced a Zero Trust platform built around its BlueField data-processing units and Nvidia software.Zero Trust is an architecture that verifies every user and device that tries to access the network and enforces strict access control and identity management that limits authorized users to accessing only those resources they need to do their jobs.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] “You cannot just rely on the firewall on the outside, you have to assume that any application or any user inside your data center is a bad actor,” said Manuvir Das, head of enterprise computing at Nvidia. “Zero Trust basically just refers to the fact that you can't trust any application or user because there are bad actors.”To read this article in full, please click here

Nvidia jumps into Zero Trust

Nvidia has announced a Zero Trust platform built around its BlueField data-processing units and Nvidia software.Zero Trust is an architecture that verifies every user and device that tries to access the network and enforces strict access control and identity management that limits authorized users to accessing only those resources they need to do their jobs.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] “You cannot just rely on the firewall on the outside, you have to assume that any application or any user inside your data center is a bad actor,” said Manuvir Das, head of enterprise computing at Nvidia. “Zero Trust basically just refers to the fact that you can't trust any application or user because there are bad actors.”To read this article in full, please click here

AMD Gets Inside Facebook’s Latest – And Most Powerful – Microserver

Sometimes, you do put new wine in old bottles. This is what it looks like Meta – well, really its Facebook social network group – is doing as it adds a microserver node based on a custom AMD “Milan” Epyc 7003 processor to its datacenter infrastructure.

AMD Gets Inside Facebook’s Latest – And Most Powerful – Microserver was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Heavy Networking 606: Dealing With DNS And Domain Name Abuse

The DNS Abuse Institute is a community effort to develop solutions to DNS-related problems including malware, botnets, phishing, pharming, and spam. On today's show we speak with its Director, Graeme Bunton, about the institute and its work, and the challenges of dealing with malicious actors that exploit DNS and domain names.

The post Heavy Networking 606: Dealing With DNS And Domain Name Abuse appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Kyndryl weds Microsoft to grow cloud services

IBM spin-off Kyndryl has made the first of what likely will be many strategic cloud partnerships with a pact with business software giant Microsoft.Under the agreement the companies will develop new products built on Microsoft Cloud and aimed at facilitating digital transformation, Kyndryl stated. Microsoft has also become Kyndryl’s only Premier Global Alliance Partner.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] Microsoft will sell products developed by the two companies through its global enterprise sales force and will develop a Microsoft Cloud training ground for employees called Kyndryl University for Microsof. The companies said they will focus on data modernization and governance, AI-driven innovations for industries, cyber security and resiliency, and transformation of mission critical workloads to the cloud. Kyndryl will lead with advisory, implementation, and managed services for hybrid environments, Kyndryl stated. To read this article in full, please click here

Kyndryl weds Microsoft as independent company looks to grow cloud services

IBM spin-off Kyndryl has made the first of what likely will be many strategic cloud partnerships with a pact with business software giant Microsoft.Under the agreement the companies will develop new products built on Microsoft Cloud and aimed at facilitating digital transformation, Kyndryl stated. Microsoft has also become Kyndryl’s only Premier Global Alliance Partner.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] Microsoft will sell products developed by the two companies through its global enterprise sales force and will develop a Microsoft Cloud training ground for employees called Kyndryl University for Microsof. The companies said they will focus on data modernization and governance, AI-driven innovations for industries, cyber security and resiliency, and transformation of mission critical workloads to the cloud. Kyndryl will lead with advisory, implementation, and managed services for hybrid environments, Kyndryl stated. To read this article in full, please click here

RHEL 8.5 caters to multicloud, predictive analytics, containerization

Red Hat has rolled out version 8.5 of its main-line branch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), which upgrades its support for containerization, predictive analytics, and multicloud.Red Hat Insight, the company’s predictive-analytics service—available through most RHEL subscriptions—now has more robust abilities in the areas of vulnerability identification, compliance, and remediation, the company said.Containerization is upgraded with RHEL 8.5 to make containerized applications easier to deploy and manage, according to Red Hat. The company introduced the ability to create containerized images faster through rootless use of the OverlayFS filesystem. OverlayFS is “union file system,” which allows users to overlay one file system over another, enabling multiple users or applications to access it at the same time.To read this article in full, please click here

RHEL 8.5 caters to multicloud, predictive analytics, containerization

Red Hat has rolled out version 8.5 of its main-line branch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), which upgrades its support for containerization, predictive analytics, and multicloud.Red Hat Insight, the company’s predictive-analytics service—available through most RHEL subscriptions—now has more robust abilities in the areas of vulnerability identification, compliance, and remediation, the company said.Containerization is upgraded with RHEL 8.5 to make containerized applications easier to deploy and manage, according to Red Hat. The company introduced the ability to create containerized images faster through rootless use of the OverlayFS filesystem. OverlayFS is “union file system,” which allows users to overlay one file system over another, enabling multiple users or applications to access it at the same time.To read this article in full, please click here

The Process Will Save You

I had the opportunity to chat with my friend Chris Marget (@ChrisMarget) this week for the first time in a long while. It was good to catch up with all the things that have been going on and reminisce about the good old days. One of the topics that came up during our conversation was around working inside big organizations and the way that change processes are built.

I worked at IBM as an intern 20 years ago and the process to change things even back then was arduous. My experience with it was the deployment procedures to set up a new laptop. When I arrived the task took an hour and required something like five reboots. By the time I left we had changed that process and gotten it down to half an hour and only two reboots. However, before we could get the new directions approved as the procedure I had to test it and make sure that it was faster and produced the same result. I was frustrated but ultimately learned a lot about the glacial pace of improvements in big organizations.

Slow and Steady Finishes the Race

Change processes work to slow down the Continue reading