Application DoS In Microservice Architectures
Application-layer DoS targeting expensive service calls to cause cascading microservice failures.
Summary
Service Instability Attack
Application DDoS represents one of the most devastating ways to cause service instability in modern microservice architectures. Unlike network DDoS, application DoS targets expensive calls within architectures.
Microservice Relationships
Complex interconnected relationships between services enable attacking the system's own infrastructure. Legitimate-looking requests pass web application firewalls while causing exponential service load.
Behavior Analysis
Netflix application security team identified areas enabling exponential-work attacks. Single API requests fan out through infrastructure causing cascading dependent service calls with massive effect.
Framework and Demonstration
Frameworks refined automation and reproducibility of endpoint testing. Live demonstrations against production environments show architectural and technical approaches for identifying and remediating application DDoS vulnerabilities. Open sourced frameworks enable organization-wide testing.
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