DDos On Dyn Used Malicious TCP, UDP Traffic

Domain Name Service (DNS) provider Dyn today provided new details about the massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Oct. 21 it suffered that disrupted major websites including Okta, CNN, Pinterest, Reddit, and Twitter, and confirmed that the infamous Mirai botnet was the main culprit.

Scott Hilton, executive vice president of product for Dyn, in a blog post said the attackers employed masked TCP and UDP traffic via Port 53 in the attack as well as recursive DNS retry traffic, "further exacerbating its impact," he said.

Dyn also confirmed that the widely suspected Mirai botnet was a "primary source" of the DDoS attacks, which came in multiple waves and affected various websites for nearly nine hours on Friday.