A Low and Slow Attack is a type of cyber attack characterized by its subtle, prolonged nature, designed to evade traditional security defenses by operating below typical detection thresholds. Unlike brute-force or high-volume attacks, it aims to gradually exhaust system resources or steal data over an extended period without triggering immediate alerts. In the crypto domain, this could target decentralized exchange APIs, node infrastructure, or smart contract interactions, seeking to cause denial of service, data exfiltration, or financial manipulation without overt signs. Its fundamental purpose is to achieve malicious objectives stealthily and persistently.
Mechanism
The mechanism involves sending legitimate-looking but minimally impactful requests or data packets to a target system at infrequent intervals. These requests consume small amounts of server resources, such as open connections or memory, but accumulate over time to eventually exhaust available capacity. Examples include Slowloris attacks, which hold open numerous HTTP connections, or application-layer attacks that slowly inject malicious code. The attacker deliberately maintains a low rate of activity, making it difficult for signature-based intrusion detection systems to classify the traffic as anomalous. This persistent, resource-draining behavior leads to service degradation or system compromise.
Methodology
The strategic approach to defending against low and slow attacks necessitates advanced behavioral analytics and anomaly detection capabilities. Methodologies include establishing baselines for normal system resource utilization, connection patterns, and user behavior, then flagging any statistically significant deviations, even if minor. For crypto platforms, this involves monitoring API request rates per user, transaction processing times, and smart contract gas usage for subtle, long-term trends. Principles prioritize real-time traffic analysis, stateful inspection of network connections, and the deployment of machine learning models that can identify gradual resource depletion or unusual persistence in activity. This systematic defense focuses on detecting subtle deviations.
A low and slow attack targets the finite stateful resources of a server, like connection threads, by using protracted, low-volume traffic to cause systemic exhaustion.
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