What Is DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)?
An attack that overwhelms a server or network with traffic from many sources simultaneously, making it unavailable to legitimate users. Unlike a simple DoS attack from one source, DDoS attacks use thousands of compromised devices (a botnet) to generate traffic that is difficult to filter.
In Laravel Applications
Laravel applications can mitigate DDoS at the infrastructure level with services like Cloudflare, AWS Shield, or similar CDN/DDoS protection services. At the application level, use rate limiting and caching to reduce server load during traffic spikes.
Example
A DDoS attack sends 100,000 requests per second to your Laravel application, overwhelming your web server and making the site unavailable to real users.
Related Terms
Rate Limiting
A technique that controls the number of requests a client can make to a server within a specified time period. Rate limiting protects against brute-force attacks, denial of service, API abuse, and web scraping by rejecting requests that exceed the defined threshold.
Brute-Force Attack
An attack method that tries every possible combination of credentials until the correct one is found. Brute-force attacks target login forms, API keys, encryption keys, and any authentication mechanism that does not limit the number of attempts.
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
A security tool that monitors and filters HTTP traffic between the internet and a web application. A WAF protects against common attacks like SQL injection, XSS, and request forgery by analyzing request patterns and blocking malicious traffic before it reaches your application.
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