Re: Is there a line of defense against Distributed Reflective attacks?

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb () research att com>]

In message <Pine.GSO.4.44.0301182004040.16112-100000 () clifden donelan com>, Sean
 Donelan writes:
> On Sat, 18 Jan 2003, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> > theory, trace a single packet.  But the real problem with either idea
> > is this:  suppose that you know, unambiguously and unequivocally, that
> > 750 zombies are attacking you.  What do you do with that information?
>
> The reality is its not 750 zombies, its generally one person controlling
> 750 zombies attacking you.

Right -- and neither itrace nor hash-based tracing are going to solve 
that:
>

>   3) Find and convict the true attacker

Hash-based trace might help on that, *if* there was recording of the 
packets to the zombies.  But doing that ubiquitously might -- would? -- 
turn the Internet into a surveillance state.
>

>   2) Track and stop DDOS quickly when it does happen

That's the point of pushback.

> So how do we
>   1) Make end-user systems less vulnerable to being compromised

That's my real goal...

                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb (me)
                http://www.wilyhacker.com (2nd edition of "Firewalls" book)