Using Google servers as a DDoS tool

posted onAugust 30, 2011
by l33tdawg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/4249731778/
Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/4249731778/

Google's servers can be used by cyber attackers to launch DDoS attacks, claims Simone "R00T_ATI" Quatrini, a penetration tester for Italian security consulting firm AIR Sicurezza.

Quatrini discovered that two vulnerable pages - /_/sharebox/linkpreview/ and gadgets/proxy? - can be used to request any file type, which Google+ will download and show - even if the attacker isn't logged into Google+.

By making many such request simultaneously - which he managed to do by using a shell script he's written - he practically used Google's bandwidth to orchestrate a small DDoS attack against a server he owns.

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Google Security

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