Skip to main content
Version: 7.1

SYN Flood

SYN Flood Attack

Identifying SYN flood attacks is a critical component in protecting network infrastructures from a common and disruptive type of Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack. In a SYN flood attack, an attacker exploits the TCP connection establishment process by rapidly sending SYN (synchronization) packets to a target's network port, but then either not responding to the server's SYN-ACK response or sending the responses very slowly. This can overwhelm the server, leading to resource exhaustion and preventing legitimate users from establishing connections. Given the severity of these attacks, which can incapacitate web servers, mail servers, and other network resources, it's vital to detect them early. Quick identification allows for timely intervention to mitigate the attack and maintain service availability, ensuring network stability and user access.

ElastiFlow provides a collection of anomaly detection jobs designed to identify SYN flood attacks including various techniques and tools for analyzing network traffic and identifying the hallmarks of such attacks.

Attributes

AttributeInformation
Analysis Typepopulation
MITRE ATT&CK TechniqueNetwork Denial of Service (T1498)
MITRE ATT&CK Sub-TechniqueDirect Network Flood (T1498.001)
MITRE ATT&CK TacticImpact (TA0040)

Downloads

SchemaVectorPerspectiveLink
CODEXdirectedgeelastiflow_codex_netsec_syn_flood_direct_edge
CODEXdirectinboundelastiflow_codex_netsec_syn_flood_direct_in
CODEXdirectoutboundelastiflow_codex_netsec_syn_flood_direct_out
CODEXdirectprivateelastiflow_codex_netsec_syn_flood_direct_priv
CODEXdistributededgeelastiflow_codex_netsec_syn_flood_ddos_edge
CODEXdistributedinboundelastiflow_codex_netsec_syn_flood_ddos_in
CODEXdistributedoutboundelastiflow_codex_netsec_syn_flood_ddos_out
CODEXdistributedprivateelastiflow_codex_netsec_syn_flood_ddos_priv
ECSdirectedgeelastiflow_ecs_netsec_syn_flood_direct_edge
ECSdirectinboundelastiflow_ecs_netsec_syn_flood_direct_in
ECSdirectoutboundelastiflow_ecs_netsec_syn_flood_direct_out
ECSdirectprivateelastiflow_ecs_netsec_syn_flood_direct_priv
ECSdistributededgeelastiflow_ecs_netsec_syn_flood_ddos_edge
ECSdistributedinboundelastiflow_ecs_netsec_syn_flood_ddos_in
ECSdistributedoutboundelastiflow_ecs_netsec_syn_flood_ddos_out
ECSdistributedprivateelastiflow_ecs_netsec_syn_flood_ddos_priv

By implementing this suite of anomaly detection jobs, network administrators can rapidly detect and respond to SYN flood attacks. This proactive approach is essential for minimizing the impact of such attacks, ensuring that network services remain available and reliable, and maintaining the overall health of the network infrastructure.