Abstract

We present a solution to the denial of service (DoS) problem that does not rely on network infrastructure support, conforming to the end-to-end (e2e) design principle. Our approach is to combine an overlay network, which allows us to treat authorized traffic preferentially, with a lightweight process-migration environment that allows us to move services easily between different parts of a distributed system. Functionality residing on a part of the system that is subjected to a DoS attack migrates to an unaffected location. The overlay network ensures that traffic from legitimate users, who are authenticated before they are allowed to access the service, is routed to the new location. We demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach by measuring the performance of an experimental prototype against a series of attacks using PlanetLab, a distributed experimental testbed. Our preliminary results show that the end-toend latency remains at acceptable levels during regular operation, increasing only by a factor of 2 to 3, even for large overlays. When a process migrates due to a DoS attack, the disruption of service for the end user is in the order of a few seconds, depending on the network proximity of the servers involved in the migration.

Citations