Record-breaking 5.6 Tbps DDoS Attack From 13,000 Mirai Hacked Devices

Cloudflare recently thwarted the largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack ever recorded, peaking at an unprecedented 5.6 terabits per second (Tbps).

The attack, which occurred on October 29, 2024, targeted an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Eastern Asia and was launched by a Mirai-variant botnet comprising over 13,000 compromised Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

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This record-breaking assault lasted a mere 80 seconds but represented a significant leap in attack volume, surpassing previous records set earlier in the same year. In September, Cloudflare had mitigated a 3.8 Tbps attack, followed by a 4.2 Tbps attack in early October.

The attack’s brevity and intensity highlight a growing trend in DDoS tactics. Cloudflare reports that 91% of network layer DDoS attacks and 72% of HTTP DDoS attacks now conclude within ten minutes.

This shift towards short, intense bursts of traffic poses new challenges for cybersecurity teams, emphasizing the need for automated, always-on protection systems.

Record-breaking 5.6 Tbps DDoS Attack

Throughout 2024, Cloudflare observed a dramatic surge in DDoS activity. The company’s autonomous defense systems mitigated approximately 21.3 million DDoS attacks, marking a 53% increase from the previous year. On average, Cloudflare blocked 4,870 DDoS attacks every hour.

The fourth quarter of 2024 saw a particularly alarming trend, with over 420 hyper-volumetric attacks exceeding rates of 1 billion packets per second (pps) and 1 Tbps. More concerning still, the number of attacks surpassing 1 Tbps grew by an astonishing 1,885% compared to the previous quarter.

In Q4 alone, Cloudflare mitigated 6.9 million DDoS attacks, representing a 16% increase quarter-over-quarter and an 83% surge year-over-year. Of these, 49% (3.4 million) were Layer 3/Layer 4 DDoS attacks, while 51% (3.5 million) were HTTP DDoS attacks.

The majority of HTTP DDoS attacks (73%) were launched by known botnets, with an additional 11% caught impersonating legitimate browsers. Another 10% contained suspicious or unusual HTTP attributes.

Interestingly, the attack vectors are evolving. Thirteen of the top user agents appearing most frequently in DDoS attacks were Chrome versions ranging from 118 to 129, indicating that attackers are attempting to blend in with regular traffic.

The record-breaking October attack utilized UDP flooding, which exploits the User Datagram Protocol to overwhelm target systems. Despite its immense scale, Cloudflare’s autonomous defense systems detected and mitigated the attack without human intervention or service disruption.

As IoT devices proliferate and botnets become more powerful, organizations must remain vigilant and invest in robust, automated DDoS protection systems to safeguard their digital infrastructure against these evolving threats.

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