A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack tries to make a website, application, or network unavailable by overwhelming it or consuming resources it needs to serve legitimate users. Unlike a denial-of-service (DoS) event from a single source, a DDoS attack coordinates traffic from multiple sources, often compromised computers, routers, or other connected devices. Defending against one takes more than a single filter: protections need to match the bottleneck being targeted, and the response plan must account for legitimate traffic surges too.
How a DDoS attack disrupts a service
The attacker directs traffic or requests at a target until a key resource is strained. That resource might be available network bandwidth, equipment handling network connections, or the processing capacity of an application. Compromised devices can be coordinated as a botnet, making traffic come from many systems rather than one obvious source. AWS summarizes the defining distinction this way: “In a DDoS attack, an attacker uses multiple sources to orchestrate an attack against a target.”
The three attack families below are a practical starting point, not rigid boxes. AWS notes that attacks commonly involve OSI Layers 3, 4, and 7; providers may group or label techniques differently. An attack can combine vectors, and a high request count is not required to exhaust a service.
Common DDoS attack types and examples
| Attack family | What it tries to exhaust | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Volumetric | Available network bandwidth by sending a large volume of traffic. | UDP floods and reflection or amplification attacks. Cloudflare describes botnet traffic and amplification as possible contributors to these floods. |
| Protocol or state exhaustion | Network equipment or resources involved in handling network and transport protocol behavior or connections. | SYN floods; Microsoft also lists fragmented-packet attacks among the types Azure DDoS Protection mitigates. |
| Application-layer | Application processing capacity, often by making requests that are costly to handle or keeping connections occupied. | HTTP floods and low-and-slow patterns such as Slowloris, which keeps connections open or sends data slowly. |
Why application traffic can be difficult to judge
Application-layer traffic may resemble normal user activity, while legitimate events such as a product launch or a sudden news-driven surge can also produce a sharp increase in requests. The defensive problem is to identify harmful patterns without denying service to real users. Microsoft’s Azure guidance says a web application firewall (WAF) should be used alongside its network-layer DDoS Protection for application-layer coverage; a WAF is not a substitute for upstream network mitigation.
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What recent DDoS figures show—and what they do not
The following figures describe activity Cloudflare observed or mitigated on its own network. They are useful examples of reported scale and changing techniques, not a complete global count or an independent prevalence study.
- January–June 2026: Cloudflare Cloudforce One reported 23.2 million network-layer DDoS attacks, or about 5,343 per hour. It said 96.62% were below 500 Mbps, while cautioning that attacks it classifies as “small” could still overwhelm many Internet properties.
- January–June 2026: Cloudflare reported 935 network-layer attacks exceeding 1 Tbps and a 519% quarter-over-quarter increase in that category from Q1 to Q2. It attributed 34.3% of network-layer activity to DNS-based attacks, distinguishing direct DNS floods from DNS amplification using spoofed queries and open resolvers.
- 2025: Cloudflare Radar’s Q4 report described a 31.4 Tbps attack lasting 35 seconds, detected and automatically mitigated by Cloudflare. The same report described the “Night Before Christmas” Aisuru-Kimwolf campaign, which included 902 hyper-volumetric attacks; its maximum recorded rates were 9 billion packets per second, 24 Tbps, and 205 million requests per second.
These measurements belong to the specific reporting periods and Cloudflare telemetry named above. They should not be read as totals for all providers, targets, or the Internet as a whole.
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How to defend a website or application against DDoS
Build protection in layers so traffic is absorbed, filtered, and monitored before it can exhaust the origin. The right design depends on the service, provider, and configuration; no single measure guarantees availability.
- Cache content at the edge. Use a content delivery network (CDN) or another caching layer for static and frequently requested resources. Serving cacheable content without asking the origin for each request reduces avoidable origin load.
- Filter web requests in the application path. A WAF can inspect and filter HTTP requests and is relevant to many Layer 7 attacks. Pair it with network-layer capacity and mitigation rather than treating it as a replacement for them.
- Close direct paths to the origin. Configure the origin to accept traffic through the protective application path instead of arbitrary direct Internet connections. If attackers can reach the origin directly, they may bypass the cache and WAF.
- Arrange infrastructure-layer mitigation. Use edge and network protections appropriate to the scale and vectors the service needs to withstand. AWS describes layered protections from edge services through application security; coverage varies with provider, architecture, and configuration.
- Prepare detection and response. Maintain visibility into traffic and service health, an operational runbook, escalation contacts, and clear responsibilities with hosting and protection providers. Include a way to distinguish likely attack traffic from an ordinary surge and to adjust mitigations without unnecessarily blocking users.
How to evaluate DDoS protection
When comparing a CDN, managed mitigation service, or WAF, check the service’s documented fit against the architecture—not just a headline capacity claim. Useful questions include:
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