| Recurring |
one_organization, multiple_organization |
(a) The software failure incident related to a massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack leveraging a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP) happened again at Cloudflare. The attack targeted one of Cloudflare's customers in Europe, and Cloudflare CEO Matthew Price mentioned that it was bigger than the previous Spamhaus attack. This incident highlights a recurring vulnerability within Cloudflare's infrastructure [Article 24598].
(b) The software failure incident involving NTP reflection attacks has also affected other organizations. US-CERT issued an alert warning companies about the growing popularity of NTP reflection attacks after game servers hosting EA's Origin service, Blizzard's Battle.net, and League of Legends were taken down using this technique. Prolexic, a security vendor, observed the attack being used on several clients during the past six months, indicating that multiple organizations have been targeted by similar attacks [Article 24598]. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) |
design |
(a) The software failure incident described in the article is related to the design phase. The incident was a massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that reached more than 400Gbps at its peak. The attack leveraged a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP), a network protocol used to synchronize computer clock times. Attackers exploited this flaw in the design of the NTP protocol to amplify the volume of traffic directed at the victim by querying vulnerable NTP servers for traffic counts using the victim's spoofed address. This design vulnerability allowed the attackers to launch a significant DDoS attack on servers in Europe [24598].
(b) The software failure incident is not directly related to the operation phase or misuse of the system. The primary cause of the incident was the exploitation of a flaw in the NTP protocol during the design phase, rather than issues arising from the operation or misuse of the system. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) |
within_system, outside_system |
(a) within_system: The software failure incident described in the article is primarily due to contributing factors that originate from within the system. The incident was a massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that reached over 400Gbps, targeting a customer of CloudFlare by leveraging a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP) [Article 24598]. The attack technique involved querying vulnerable NTP servers for traffic counts using the victim's spoofed address, leading to a significant amplification of traffic directed at the victim. This attack technique exploited a vulnerability within the NTP servers, which are part of the system being targeted.
(b) outside_system: The software failure incident is also influenced by contributing factors that originate from outside the system. The attackers behind the DDoS attack utilized the flaw in the NTP protocol to launch the attack, indicating that the external threat actors exploited a weakness in the system's external communication protocols to carry out the attack [Article 24598]. The attack was not a result of an internal system error or fault but rather an external manipulation of the NTP protocol to generate a massive volume of traffic directed at the victim's servers. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) |
non-human_actions |
(a) The software failure incident in the article was primarily due to non-human actions. The incident was a massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that reached over 400Gbps at its peak, targeting servers in Europe by leveraging a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP) [Article 24598]. The attack technique involved querying vulnerable NTP servers for traffic counts using the victim's spoofed address, leading to an amplification of traffic directed at the victim. This type of attack is initiated by exploiting vulnerabilities in the NTP protocol and does not involve direct human actions in the attack process. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) |
hardware, software |
(a) The software failure incident related to hardware:
- The incident was a massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that reached more than 400Gbps at its peak [Article 24598].
- The attack leveraged a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP), a network protocol used to synchronize computer clock times [Article 24598].
- Attackers queried vulnerable NTP servers for traffic counts using the victim's spoofed address, leading to amplification of traffic directed at the victim [Article 24598].
(b) The software failure incident related to software:
- The attack exploited a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP), indicating a software vulnerability that was leveraged by the attackers [Article 24598].
- The incident involved the use of toolkits like DNS Flooder v1.1, which utilized a unique method to launch reflection attacks, showcasing software-based attack techniques [Article 24598]. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) |
malicious |
(a) The software failure incident described in the article is malicious in nature. It was a massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that reached more than 400Gbps at its peak, targeting one of the customers of CloudFlare by leveraging a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP) [Article 24598]. The attack was directed at servers in Europe and involved attackers querying vulnerable NTP servers for traffic counts using the victim's spoofed address, resulting in amplification of traffic directed at the victim. The attack was described as a "very big NTP reflection attack" by Cloudflare CEO Matthew Price, who mentioned that someone had a "big, new cannon" and warned of "ugly things to come." The attack technique's popularity had grown in recent months, and it was difficult to block due to the responses being legitimate data coming from valid servers. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) |
unknown |
The software failure incident described in the article is related to a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that reached more than 400Gbps at its peak. The attack was directed at one of the customers of CloudFlare, a content delivery network and security provider, and it leveraged a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP) [24598].
(a) The intent of the software failure incident does not seem to be related to poor decisions. Instead, it appears to be a deliberate attack orchestrated by malicious actors to disrupt services by exploiting vulnerabilities in the NTP protocol and using reflection techniques to amplify the volume of traffic directed at the victim.
(b) The software failure incident was not accidental but rather a deliberate and malicious act aimed at causing disruption and service slowdowns across the Internet. The attackers intentionally targeted servers in Europe and utilized the NTP reflection attack technique to amplify the traffic directed at the victim [24598]. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) |
accidental |
(a) The software failure incident reported in the article is not related to development incompetence. The incident was a massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that reached more than 400Gbps at its peak, targeting a customer of CloudFlare by leveraging a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP) [Article 24598].
(b) The software failure incident reported in the article is more aligned with an accidental failure. The attack was directed at servers in Europe using a technique where attackers query vulnerable NTP servers for traffic counts using the victim's spoofed address. This technique allows the attacker to amplify the volume of traffic directed at the victim, making it difficult to block these types of attacks [Article 24598]. |
| Duration |
temporary |
(a) The software failure incident described in the article was temporary. It was a massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that reached more than 400Gbps at its peak, targeting one of the customers of CloudFlare. The attack leveraged a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP) and was directed at servers in Europe. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Price mentioned in a tweet that it was a "very big NTP reflection attack hitting us right now" and that it appeared to be bigger than the previous Spamhaus attack. The attack was being mitigated, indicating that it was a temporary incident [24598]. |
| Behaviour |
other |
(a) crash: The software failure incident described in the article is not related to a crash where the system loses state and does not perform any of its intended functions.
(b) omission: The incident does not involve the system omitting to perform its intended functions at an instance(s).
(c) timing: The failure is not related to the system performing its intended functions correctly but too late or too early.
(d) value: The software failure incident is not due to the system performing its intended functions incorrectly.
(e) byzantine: The incident does not involve the system behaving erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions.
(f) other: The behavior of the software failure incident described in the article is related to a massive distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack leveraging a flaw in the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to amplify traffic directed at the victim's servers. This behavior falls under the category of a deliberate attack exploiting a vulnerability in the system's network protocol [24598]. |