Subject: Re: DDOS attacks

From: Dave Crocker <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 15:08:26 +0800

Meng,

MWW> It seems to me the DDOS attacks we have reviewed so far
MWW> pretty much boil down to:

I believe that you have completely misunderstood the problem and,
therefore, entirely missed the nature of at least one approach to
solving it.

The problem is not just with malicious attacks designed to create a
service interruption.

Current methods of spam transmission are architecturally identical to
a DDOS attack.  The only difference is that they target a large number
of recipients, rather than just one.

Hence, it is the act of mass coercion and mass transmission that is
the issue.  It pertains, of course, to true attacks, but it also
pertains to the sending of spam.  It can involve thousands of user
machines, and any number of user domain names, all going through the
same ISP.;

A mechanism which can identify an aggregate source of such traffic
permits a high degree of efficiency at limiting its damage.

That is what CSV permits.

As I understand its intent and design, that is not something that SPF
does do at all.

d/
--
 Dave Crocker <mailto:[email-masked]>
 Brandenburg InternetWorking <http://www.brandenburg.com>
 Sunnyvale, CA  USA <tel:+1.408.246.8253>, <fax:+1.866.358.5301>