I DDoS'd Myself (Don't Do This)

Why It Matters

Understanding how easily a basic ICMP flood can degrade service—and how simply it can be blocked—helps organizations prioritize network hardening and avoid costly legal exposure.

Key Takeaways

• Demonstrates self‑inflicted DDoS using multiple compromised hosts on a local network
• Single‑source ping flood fails to overwhelm bandwidth‑rich server
• Distributed ping flood raises latency from sub‑ms to 19 ms
• Disabling ICMP on server instantly neutralizes the ping‑flood attack
• Unauthorized DDoS testing can lead to criminal prosecution

Summary

The video walks through a live demonstration of a denial‑of‑service attack performed on the presenter’s own web server, illustrating both a simple ICMP ping flood and a distributed variant. The host warns viewers that such activities are illegal without permission and can result in jail time.

Using the hping3 tool with the “‑1” flag, a single‑machine ping flood is launched against the target IP. Because the server has ample bandwidth, response times remain sub‑millisecond, showing that a lone source cannot easily overwhelm a well‑provisioned system. When additional machines are added, latency spikes to up to 19 ms on a local LAN, exemplifying a basic distributed denial‑of‑service (DDoS) effect.

The presenter notes, “We’ve gone from sub millisecond to at times 19 milliseconds,” highlighting the dramatic impact of coordinated traffic. He also points out that the attack exploits a routine network diagnostic protocol—ICMP—and can be thwarted simply by disabling ping responses on the server.

The demonstration underscores that while low‑level DDoS attacks are trivial to launch, they are equally trivial to mitigate, emphasizing the need for proper network hardening. Moreover, it serves as a cautionary reminder of the legal ramifications of unauthorized testing, reinforcing best practices for ethical security research.

Original Description

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZYtnzODpW4