Re: Dos Attack es part of a pentest

[Dave Howe <DaveHowe.pentest () googlemail com>]

On 26/10/2010 05:08, Juan B wrote:
> hi all
>
> a client of mine wants mi to perform a Dos attack against his webserver as part of a pentest. any idea how to do it? I 
> dont think to create a Botnet just for performing this test for him, any idea how to issue this attack? methods or 
> tools?
>
> thanks a lot
>
> Marco

Botnet isn't required. The advantage of a botnet is to combine multiple 
data sources to overwhelm the target's bandwidth. To simulate this, 
ensure that the test workstation has a 100BaseT connection to a switch, 
shared by the webserver's upstream link and the webserver itself. Test 
in this configuration first, odds are good that a tester that doesn't 
care about rendering responses can overwhelm a webserver that has to 
generate dynamic content relatively easily, and of course you can try 
synflood and other attacks not bandwidth critical.

Now, reconfigure the webserver to have only 10BaseT connectivity to the 
switch. This simulates a chokepoint on bandwidth  and lets your 100BaseT 
host overwhelm that easily.

Anything that actually requires a botnet is likely to be unethical - you 
are not only hammering on your customer's door, but on every resource 
enroute (particularly on the target ISP) - plus likely to get your 
"botnet" members reported to their host ISPs by the target ISP.


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