SDN-Assisted Slow HTTP DDoS Attack Defense Method

Abstract

A Slow HTTP distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack causes a Web server to be unavailable, but it is difficult to detect in a network, because its traffic patterns are similar to those of legitimate clients. In this letter, we propose a network-based Slow HTTP DDoS attack defense method, which is assisted by a software-defined network that can detect and mitigate Slow HTTP DDoS attacks in the network. Simulation results show that the proposed Slow HTTP DDoS attack defense method successfully protects Web servers against Slow HTTP DDoS attacks.