Live data from Hacker News

DoS attacks against my online game

hookrace.net

71–80 of 100 posts

Re: DoS attacks against my online game

#71
post #9

Not sure if this is helpful, but I remember reading about the tribes network protocol years ago. IIRC it also UDP based and essentially had a mechanism to request a proof of work depending on server load before accepting any complex packets from a client. You could probably require some proof for their source IP utilizing the HTTPS request already used during server browsing. Edit: Found it. http://opentnl.sourceforg…

Amusingly every other page on that site is giving me a Cloudflare access denied error, saying "This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks."

Re: DoS attacks against my online game

#72
I don't know much about DDoS protection, but wouldn't it be possible to add token to UDP packets? So the client first connects to a TCP server and gets 4 bytes token unique per IP. Every UDP packed should start with that token. Since an attacker with spoofed IP can't get a valid token, their packets can be ignored with a cheap check. Might be even possible to use iptables/XDP for it?

Re: DoS attacks against my online game

#73
post #14
post #5

A few suggestions: 1. Cloudflare offer TCP based DDoS protection too, see their Magic Transit or Spectrum product 2. This sucks, but put your servers behind WireGuard or Tailscale VPN so that in order to connect you need to have authenticated

As the blogpost mentions TCP is not exactly desirable for our project. Moreover, if you contact Cloudflare about those products you'll get a monthly quote that is far beyond what an open source project run by donations can sustain :)

That shouldn’t be the case. Email me if it is. I’ll make sure we help: matthewatcloudflaredotcom.

Re: DoS attacks against my online game

#74
post #8
post #4

You should look into OVH. They have those gaming server and they handle the DDOS protection. I was getting hit by DDOS before, but since I moved there, nothing (except an email from OVH to let me know that my server is being attacked and that they are filtering my trafic). On the server itself you just don't feel anything. Edit: I should add that the DDOS protection is included with the server rental and there is no…

I don't think OVH is viable in this case, they do mitigate the attack but in my personal experience they also mitigate legit traffic during the attack. Mind you, this is a process using a single port, with only around 100 active connections. You'll easily see half if not more lose connection during a DDoS attack.

I feel like I have to throw OVH a bone here.

From running a service with 50-100k concurrently active connections on a single VPS on OVH that has shrugged off a lot of attempted DOS attacks over multiple years, I have the impression that OVH handles DOS attacks exceptionally well. Specifically I've never seen it drop (a lot) of legitimate traffic.

In comparison to OVH, Hetzner (which this game seems to be using), is utter garbage when it comes to responding to any kind of incident well, or at least predictably. Their responses range from doing absolutely nothing, to nullrouting you, to terminating your service. With OVH I at least know how they'll respond to various things and they're (with few exceptions) professional about it, even if I don't like it.

I'd say you get what you pay for, but OVH (when comparing dedicated servers) aren't much more expensive.

Re: DoS attacks against my online game

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascinating that there are people out there with disposable income for the sole purpose of griefing someone’s project/product.

I think it can be cheaper to initiate these types of attacks than to defend against them. Just pissing someone off with an extra $20 to spend can give you a bad day

Real life amplification attack, eh?

Re: DoS attacks against my online game

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascinating that there are people out there with disposable income for the sole purpose of griefing someone’s project/product.

I think it can be cheaper to initiate these types of attacks than to defend against them. Just pissing someone off with an extra $20 to spend can give you a bad day

Offense in cheaper than defense even in non internet related situations, hence societies with high levels of trust between its members are able to advance more quickly due to not needing to waste so many resources on defense.
Post reply on HN