Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An OpenStack based cloud testbed framework for evaluating HTTP flooding attacks

  • Published:
Wireless Networks Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The cloud computing has inherent challenges to detect the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) flooding Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack due to its natural characteristics like virtualization, elasticity and multi-tenancy. The usage of cloud computing is user-friendly, but the implementation of the cloud infrastructure such as compute node, networking, cloud storage is very complex in order to achieve its various characteristics. Similarly, detecting the HTTP flooding attack in the cloud is also very complex as it requires an understanding of various potential attack paths in such a complex environment. So, designing the cloud testbed framework to detect the HTTP flooding attacks is a challenging problem to be solved. The cloud testbed framework has to consider several aspects of attack scenarios while accounting the cloud characteristics. This paper reviews the existing DDoS attack detection framework and their gaps and proposes a cloud testbed framework for evaluating the HTTP flooding DDoS attack solution. The proposed framework is implemented using the OpenStack cloud environment. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup 1998 real-time dataset is used to generate the HTTP flooding attack to the OpenStack cloud testbed framework for the experimentation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. The 5 motives for DDoS attack. https://arch.simplicable.com/arch/new/the-5-motives-for-DDoS-attack. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  2. NIST Cloud Computing Program—NCCP. https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/nist-cloud-computing-program-nccp. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  3. Top 10 security concerns for cloud-based services. https://www.incapsula.com/blog/top-10-cloud-security-concerns.html. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  4. Dhanapal, A., et al. (2013) Data usage security, accounting and auditing in cloud computing. In National Conference on Networking and Communication Systems (NCS) (vol. 2, pp. 226–229).

  5. Denial of service attack: what is a dos attack? https://security.radware.com/ddos-knowledge-center/ddospedia/dos-attack/. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  6. DDoS attack types and mitigation methods. https://www.incapsula.com/ddos/ddos-attacks/. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  7. What is a DDoS attack and how do you protect against DDoS attacks? https://www.arbornetworks.com/research/what-is-ddos. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  8. Why move to the cloud? 10 benefits of cloud computing. https://www.salesforce.com/uk/blog/2015/11/why-move-to-the-cloud-10-benefits-of-cloud-computing.html. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  9. DDoS top 6: Why hackers attack. https://www.pentasecurity.com/blog/ddos-top-6-hackers-attack/. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  10. Widespread cyberattack takes down sites worldwide. http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/21/technology/ddos-attack-popular-sites/index.html. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  11. The 5 most significant DDoS Attacks of 2016. https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-protection/cyber-security/5-significant-ddos-attacks-2016/. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  12. Application attacks against clouds up 45%. https://www.csoonline.com/article/2991409/cloud-security/application-attacks-against-clouds-up-45.html. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  13. Denial-of-Service attacks meet the cloud: 4 Lessons. https://www.cio.com/article/2413818/cloud-computing/denial-of-service-attacks-meet-the-cloud--4-lessons.html. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  14. Cloud delivery models. http://whatiscloud.com/cloud_delivery_models/index. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  15. Cloud deployment models. http://whatiscloud.com/cloud_deployment_models/index. Accessed 9 Jan 2019.

  16. Dhanapal, A., et al. (2018) A review of cloud computing adoption issues and challenges. Recent Patents on Computer Science. https://doi.org/10.2174/2213275911666181114142428.

  17. World Cup Web Site Access Logs. http://ita.ee.lbl.gov/html/contrib/WorldCup.html.

  18. Dhanapal, A., et al. (2017) An effective mechanism to regenerate HTTP flooding DDoS attack using real time data set. In ICICICT (pp. 570–575).

  19. Smirnov, A.V., et al. (2016) Network traffic processing module for infrastructure attacks detection in cloud computing platforms. In IEEE (pp. 199–202).

  20. Kobayashi, R., et al. (2016). Defense method of HTTP GET flood attack by adaptively controlling server resources depending on different attack intensity. Journal of Information Processing, 24(5), 802–815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Shruthi, B. T., et al. (2016). X-DoS (XML Denial of Service) attack strategy on cloud computing. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 2(12), 1665–1669.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Shahanaz Begum, I., et al. (2016). DDoS attack detection and prevention in private cloud environment. International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology, 7(3), 527–531.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Kiruthika Devi, B. S., et al. (2016). Comparative analysis of security methods for DDoS attacks in the cloud computing environment. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 9(34), 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Karnwal, T., et al. (2012) A comber approach to protect cloud computing against XML DDoS and HTTP DDoS attack. In IEEE Students’ Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Science (pp. 1–5).

  25. Osanaiye, O., et al. (2016) Change-point cloud DDoS detection using packet inter-arrival time. In 8th Computer Science and Electronic Engineering Conference (CEEC) (pp. 204–209).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing Science and Engineering, VIT University, Chennai, India

    A. Dhanapal & P. Nithyanandam

Authors
  1. A. Dhanapal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. P. Nithyanandam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Dhanapal.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dhanapal, A., Nithyanandam, P. An OpenStack based cloud testbed framework for evaluating HTTP flooding attacks. Wireless Netw 27, 5491–5501 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-019-01937-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-019-01937-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation