A case study on DDoS attacks against Tor relays
Authors: Tobias Höller (Johannes Kepler University), René Mayrhofer (Johannes Kepler University)
Year: 2024
Issue: 2
Pages: 64–67
Abstract: Being the victim of DDoS attacks is an experience shared by many Tor relay operators. Despite the prevalence of this type of attack, the experiences and lessons learned after such attacks are rarely discussed publicly. This work provides a detailed description of a DDoS attack against two Tor relays operated by the authors. By sharing experiences on how an attack was analyzed after it happened and what mitigation mechanisms would have been capable of stopping it, this work tries to support a discussion on guidelines for relay operators on how to properly and securely run their relays. In addition to that, the included attack analysis investigates why the attack took place in the first time, what the attackers were trying to achieve, the amount of resources they had to expend and how the attack actually worked. Hopefully, this information will be useful in future discussions on how to make the Tor network as a whole more resilient against this kind of attack.
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