Carpet bomb DDoS attacks rise 300 percent

A new report shows that 2022 saw a 300 percent increase in 'carpet bomb' DDoS attacks compared to 2021. Carpet bomb attacks, also known as spread-spectrum or spray attacks, distribute traffic across large IP address spaces.

Legacy technology, like standard victim-oriented detection and mitigation detection techniques, often fails to accurately identify these attacks, leading to incomplete mitigation or false positives. Legacy solutions can also simply be overwhelmed by the number of IP addresses involved.

The DDoS Threat Intelligence Report from Corero Network Security also reveals over seven times as many Mirai-like DDoS attacks in 2022 than in 2021. These botnet attacks are difficult to mitigate and can cause significant damage to businesses.

In addition there were twice as many DDoS attacks targeting DNS services in 2022 than in 2020. This attack vector has grown in popularity as an easy way for attackers to disrupt communications to and from websites, internet-connected devices, and applications.

"We are continuing to see significant changes in the global DDoS attack landscape, with increased attack volume, frequency and variation," says Ashley Stephenson, CTO of Corero Network Security. "The exponential rise of 'carpet bomb' attacks presents a triple threat as they evade, neutralize, or overload traditional DDoS protections."

Among other findings the report shows a major rise in the share of malicious DDoS traffic carried by the IPv6 protocol, up by 600 percent, along with a 70 percent increase in TCP-based attack vectors. Although neither of these is currently contributing to major downtime events, the trend suggests a more challenging communication environment in future.

Although 75 percent of DDoS attacks last less than 10 minutes, the report notes a 60 percent increase in those lasting more than an hour.

The full report is available from the Corero site.

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