Query-flood DoS attacks in gnutella

A simple but effective traffic model is described that can be used to understand the effects of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks based on query floods in Gnutella networks and how application-level policies can localize the damage.

Abstract

We describe a simple but effective traffic model that can be used to understand the effects of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks based on query floods in Gnutella networks. We run simulations based on the model to analyze how different choices of network topology and application level load balancing policies can minimize the effect of these types of DoS attacks. In addition, we also study how damage caused by query floods is distributed throughout the network, and how application-level policies can localize the damage.