Denial of Service Attacks at the Application and Transport Layer with mitigations
Overview
This project explored the structure, mechanisms, and defense against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on the transport (Layer 4) and application (Layer 7) layers of the OSI model. The research focused on significant attack types such as SYN flood, UDP flood, HTTP flood, SIP flood, Slowloris, and R.U.D.Y., explaining how each exploits system vulnerabilities to flood servers and block legitimate users from accessing services.
To support the research, I conducted a systematic literature review using academic databases like IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect. I compared a wide range of mitigation techniques (e.g., TCP SYN cookies, ingress/egress filtering, web application firewalls, and rate limiting) and evaluated their performance across different DDoS attacks. The project also discussed limitations such as threats to research validity and emphasised the necessity of adaptive, multi-layered cybersecurity solutions to combat ever-evolving attack modes.
Through this project, I was able to improve my understanding of network security and gain real-world experience in examining real-world cyber attacks and mitigation strategies. Additionally, it enhanced my research skills, improved my technical review of literature skills, and enhanced my understanding of the layered defense approaches in cybersecurity.