5. A high volume of HTTP, GET, and POST requests are hitting a company web server, which is causing a DoS attack for legitimate services. Which of the following solutions would most likely mitigate this attack?
Answer: C
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) would most likely mitigate the attack.
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is specifically designed to monitor, filter, and block HTTP traffic to and from a web application, making it an effective solution against DoS attacks as it can distinguish between legitimate and malicious requests.
A) ACL
Access Control Lists (ACLs) are used to define permissions and control access to network resources. While they can restrict access based on IP addresses, they are not specifically designed to handle high volumes of HTTP requests or to differentiate between legitimate and attack traffic, making them less effective in mitigating DoS attacks.
B) Load balancer
Load balancers distribute incoming traffic across multiple servers to ensure no single server becomes overwhelmed. However, they do not inherently filter malicious traffic. While they can help manage high traffic volumes, they do not provide the level of security needed to actively mitigate a DoS attack targeting HTTP requests.
C) WAF
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) offers targeted protection for web applications by analyzing HTTP requests and blocking those deemed harmful. This capability makes it the most suitable choice for mitigating DoS attacks, as it can effectively filter out malicious traffic while allowing legitimate requests to pass through.
D) IPS
Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) are designed to identify and respond to potential threats by monitoring network traffic. Although they can block known attack patterns, they may not be as effective in identifying and mitigating high volumes of legitimate HTTP requests that are part of a DoS attack, especially when such requests are varied.
Conclusion
The Web Application Firewall (WAF) stands out as the most effective solution for mitigating the specified DoS attack due to its ability to filter and manage HTTP traffic specifically. In contrast, the other options either lack the capacity to handle high volumes of web traffic effectively or do not provide sufficient protection against application-layer attacks. Therefore, a WAF is essential for ensuring the security and availability of web services under attack.