Using Bittorent protocol to launch DDoS attacks

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Computer Science - IT-Security, , language: English, abstract: In a nutshell what the researcher hopes to achieve by this project is to develop a practical solution to control Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks launched using BitTorrent protocol by tweaking the source code of an existing open source BitTorrent client.

Even though BitTorrent is a useful protocol, it could be misused to launch DDoS attacks. Since the number who uses BitTorrent protocol is high, by launching a DDoS the victim¿s machine could be crippled. Hence as a remedy to the issue this report is formulated so that it discusses how the attacks are done and how it could be prevented.

For a simple analogical demonstration of what this attack does, take a look at figure 1 where computer A cannot fulfill the requests of a legit user computer B. this is what DDoS attack does. After enhancing the security architecture of BitTorrent client this problem would not occur hence it is improved to control these attacks.