Managing a DDoS attack

• US 9,633,202 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2013
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Danford, Robert W., Escamilla, Terry D., Himberger, Kevin D., Jeffries, Clark D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Christensen, Scott B
• Assistant Examiner(s): RICHARDSON, THOMAS W
• Application Number:
  US13/854,594
• Publication Number:
  US 20130219502A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,485 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/349 for interfaces, buses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/55 Detecting local intrusion or implementing counter-measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/141 Denial of service attacks against endpoints in a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/144 Detection or countermeasures against botnets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1458 Denial of Service
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method, system, and/or computer program product manages a distributed denial of service attack in a multiprocessor environment. A determination is made of (a) a first upper threshold for a normal number of packets from the multiprocessor environment to multiple destination addresses, (b) a second upper threshold for a normal ratio of the packets from the multiprocessor environment to a single destination address compared to the packets from the multiprocessor environment to the multiple destination addresses, and (c) a third upper threshold for a normal ratio of packets from the multiprocessor environment to a single port at a single destination address compared to packets from the multiprocessor environment to the multiple destination addresses. In response to the first and second thresholds being exceeded, a specific port is monitored to determine if the third upper threshold is being exceeded at that port, thus indicating an apparent distributed denial of service attack.

Claims

1. A computer program product for managing a distributed denial of service attack in a multiprocessor environment, the computer program product comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage devices and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more computer-readable storage devices, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to determine

(a) a first upper threshold for a normal number of outbound network packets from the multiprocessor environment to multiple destination addresses on a network,

(b) a second upper threshold for a normal ratio of the outbound network packets from the multiprocessor environment to the multiple destination addresses, and

(c) a third upper threshold for a normal ratio of outbound network packets from the multiprocessor environment to a single port at a single destination address compared to outbound network packets from the multiprocessor environment to the multiple destination addresses;

program instructions to;

monitor the number of outgoing packets from the multiprocessor environment with respect to the multiple destination addresses, and

based on the monitoring of the outgoing packets from the multiprocessor environment, detect that the first upper threshold and the second upper threshold are exceeded in the multiprocessor environment, and

initiate monitoring of a specific port and protocol at the single destination address, the specific port being monitored to detect a high proportion of packets sent to the specific port, and the protocol being monitored to detect a consistent use of the protocol for all packets at the specific port;

program instructions to,

based on the initiated monitoring of the specific port and protocol, detect that the third upper threshold is exceeded for the outbound network packets being sent to the specific port being monitored and detect a consistent use of the protocol for all packets at the specific port, and

initiate monitoring of the outgoing traffic to detect a high proportion of timeouts compared to baseline values of timeouts coming from a portion of a subnet address space of said network in order to determine that an apparent distributed denial of service attack is in progress;

program instructions to,

based on detecting a high proportion of timeouts compared to said baseline values coming from said portion of a subnet address space of said network,

start blocking measures to mitigate the apparent distributed denial of service attack; and

program instructions to notify an administrator of the multiprocessor environment of the apparent distributed denial of service attack.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage devices, to:

in response to a ratio of (i) a number of packets to a particular destination address to (ii) a total number of packets outbound being greater than a predetermined number leading to a false positive indication of the apparent distributed denial of service attack, issue an instruction to the administrator of the multiprocessor environment to disallow continued monitoring of the particular destination address.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage devices, to:

in response to detecting a high proportion of outbound network packets sent to the specific port, commence blocking measures to mitigate the apparent distributed denial of service attack.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the apparent distributed denial of service attack is an outbound denial of service attack.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage devices, to:

monitor outgoing traffic with respect to a specific destination address;

in response to a ratio of (i) a number of packets to said specific destination address to (ii) a total number of packets outbound being greater than a preset number and the total number of outbound packets is above a preset value, monitor selected ports and protocols;

in response to the ratio of (i) a number of packets to one of said selected ports to (ii) a total number of packets to all of said selected ports being above a preset value, and in response to a protocol used by packets being sent to the specific destination address being consistent across more than a predetermined percentage of the selected ports, commence blocking measures to end the apparent distributed denial of service attack.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the multiprocessor environment is a grid computer environment.

7. A computer system for managing a distributed denial of service attack in a multiprocessor environment, the computer system comprising:

one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories, one or more computer-readable storage devices, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more computer-readable storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more computer-readable memories, the program instructions comprising;

first program instructions to determine (a) a first upper threshold for a normal number of outbound network packets from the multiprocessor environment to multiple destination addresses on a network, (b) a second upper threshold for a normal ratio of the outbound network packets from the multiprocessor environment to a single destination address compared to the outbound network packets from the multiprocessor environment to the multiple destination addresses, and (c) a third upper threshold for a normal ratio of outbound network packets from the multiprocessor environment to a single port at a single destination address compared to outbound network packets from the multiprocessor environment to the multiple destination addresses;

second program instructions to monitor the number of packets from the multiprocessor environment with respect to the multiple destination addresses, and based on the monitoring, detect that the first upper threshold and the second upper threshold are exceeded in the multiprocessor environment, and in response, initiate monitoring of a specific port at the single destination address;

third program instructions to establish baseline values for normal network traffic usage in the multiprocessor environment;

fourth program instructions to monitor outgoing traffic to detect a high proportion of packets being sent to a specific destination address with respect to all destination addresses, and a high number of outbound packets compared to said baseline values;

fifth program instruction to, based on detecting a high proportion of packets being sent to said specific destination address, and a high number of outbound packets compared to said baseline values, initiate monitoring of the port and protocol of outbound packets to detect a high proportion of packets sent to a specific port, and a consistent use of a protocol for all packets for that port;

sixth program instructions to, based on the monitoring of the port and protocol of outbound packets, detect that the third upper threshold is exceeded for the outbound network packets being sent to the specific port being monitored, and based on the detection, determine that an apparent distributed denial of service attack is in progress;

seventh program instructions to, based on detecting a high proportion of packets sent to a specific port, and a consistent use of a protocol for all packets for that port, initiate monitoring of outgoing traffic to detect a high proportion of timeouts compared to said baseline values coming from a portion of a subnet address space of said network; and

eighth program instructions to, based on detecting a high proportion of timeouts compared to said baseline values coming from said portion of a subnet address space of said network, start blocking measures to mitigate the apparent distributed denial of service attack; and

ninth program instructions to notify an administrator of the multiprocessor environment of the apparent distributed denial of service attack.

8. The computer system of claim 7, further comprising:

tenth program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more computer-readable storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more computer-readable memories, to, in response to a ratio of (i) a number of packets to a particular destination address to (ii) a total number of packets outbound being greater than a predetermined number leading to a false positive indication of the apparent distributed denial of service attack, issue an instruction to the administrator of the multiprocessor environment to disallow continued monitoring of the particular destination address.

9. The computer system of claim 7, further comprising:

tenth program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more computer-readable storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more computer-readable memories, to, in response to detecting a high proportion of outbound network packets sent to the specific port, commence blocking measures to mitigate the apparent distributed denial of service attack.

10. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the apparent distributed denial of service attack is an outbound denial of service attack.

11. The computer system of claim 7, further comprising:

tenth program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more computer-readable storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more computer-readable memories, to monitor outgoing traffic with respect to a specific destination address;

eleventh program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more computer-readable storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more computer-readable memories, to, in response to a ratio of (i) a number of packets to said specific destination address to (ii) a total number of packets outbound being greater than a preset number and the total number of outbound packets is above a preset value, monitor selected ports and protocols; and

twelfth program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more computer-readable storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more computer-readable memories, to, in response to the ratio of (i) a number of packets to one of said selected ports to (ii) a total number of packets to all of said selected ports being above a preset value, and in response to a protocol used by packets being sent to the specific destination address being consistent across more than a predetermined percentage of the selected ports, commence blocking measures to end the apparent distributed denial of service attack.

12. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the multiprocessor environment is a grid computer environment.