Methods

You can categorize denial-of-service attacks into at least three different types, which include:
1. Volume-Based

These are the simplest attacks. The attacker simply sends a large volume of packets to the
target thereby using up all the resources. The resources used might simply be bandwidth.
These attacks include ICMP and UDP floods.
2. Protocol-Based

These attacks often use the server's resources rather than bandwidth going to and from of
the server. They can also use the resources of the network equipment on the periphery of
the server (such a firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and switches). Examples include
Smurf attacks (ICMP to a broadcast IP with a spoofed IP), Fraggle attacks (same as the Smurf,
only using UDP), SYN floods, ping of deaths (oversized ICMP with the same destination and
source IP and port), and many others.
3. Application Layer Attacks

These attacks are compromised of what appear to be legitimate application layer (layer 7)
requests to the server that are intended to crash it. These include attacks on Apache HTTP
Server and Microsoft IIS, and includes tools such as Slowloris.
DoS & DDoS Tools
There are literally hundreds of DoS and DDoS tools available. Within Kali, we can find auxiliary
modules within Metasploit specifically for DoSing. If we navigate to:
kali > cd /usr/share/metasplot-framework/auxiliary/dos
And list the contents of that directory, we can see that Metasploit has organized its DoS tools
by the type of target. There are hundreds of denial-of-service tools in Metasploit.
We can also find hundreds of DoS tools in the Exploit Database built into Kali, and still more
at Exploit-DB.com. We can find a listing of the Exploit-DB DoS tools by navigating to:
kali > /usr/share/exploitdb/platforms/windows/dos
A long listing (ls -l) of this directory lists all of the Windows DoS tools. A similar, shorter list is
at /usr/share/exploitdb/platforms/Linux/dos.
Some of the Most Popular DoS Tools
There is no way I can list and evaluate every DoS tool, but here is a limited list of some of the
most popular and effective. This is far from an exhaustive list, but I hope to give you the basics
on some of the most popular DoS and DDoS tools. If you have a favorite, by all means, please
put it in the comments with a link to the download.
One quick note of warning: Be very careful when looking online for DoS or DDoS tools. Many
of them simply take you to a malicious link and will install a trojan on your system. I don't
know anyone who would do that. ;-)

1LOIC
The Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) may be the most popular DoS tool and has made its way
into hacker lore. It is capable of sending mass amounts of ICMP or UDP packets to the target,
thereby saturating the bandwidth, and has been used in some of the most effective and
notorious DoS attacks.
LOIC was effectively used by 4chan in the Project Chanology attack on the Church of
Scientology website in 2009, and by Anonymous in the Operation Payback attack against
PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard in retaliation for cutting off WikiLeaks donations.
LOIC attacks can be largely mitigated by limiting UDP and ICMP packets and limiting how
many packets can be sent and delivered to any one client. You can download LOIC on
SourceForge. This tool is Windows-based and almost as easy as pointing and clicking.

2HOIC
The HOIC was developed during Operation Payback by Praetox—the same folks who
developed LOIC. The key difference is that HOIC uses a HTTP flood using booster files that
enable a small number of users to effectively DoS a website by sending a flood of randomized
HTTP GET and POST requests. It is capable of simultaneously DoSing up to 256 domains. You
can download it from SourceForge.
3XOIC
XOIC is another easy-to-use DoS tool. The user simply needs to set the IP address and port of
the target, select a protocol (HTTP, UDP, ICMP, or TCP), then begin to fire away! You can
download it on SourceForge

4HULK
HTTP Unbearable Load King, or HULK, is another tool capable of bringing down web servers.
This tool uses various obfuscation techniques to limit the ability of the target to mitigate the
attack. You can download it on Packet Storm.
5UDP Flooder
UDP Flooder does just as you would expect—it sends a flood of UDP packets to the target. It
has been effectively used to knock gamers off their networks (online games primarily use
UDP). You can download it at SourceForge.

6RUDY
R-U-Dead-Yet, or RUDY, takes a different approach to DoSing websites. It enables the user to
select a form from the web app and then use that form to send a flood of POST requests. You
can download it from Hybrid Security.
7ToR's Hammer
ToR's Hammer was designed to be run through the ToR network to anonymize the attack and
limit mitigation. The problem with this strategy is that the ToR network tends to be very slow,
thereby limiting the rate at which the packets can be sent and thereby limiting the
effectiveness of this tool. You can download it from Packet Storm or SourceForge.
8Pyloris
Pyloris is another DoS tool, but with still a different strategy. It allows the user to construct
their own, unique HTTP request headers. It then attempts to keep open these TCP
connections as long as possible in order to exhaust the connection queue. When it does this,
no legitimate connections can be made and new attempts to connect by other users will be
dropped. You can download it on SourceForge.

9OWASP Switchblade
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) and ProactiveRISK developed the
Switchblade DoS tool to be used to test the resiliency of a web app to DoS attempts. It has
three modes, 1. SSL Half-Open, 2. HTTP Post, and 3. Slowloris. You can download it from
OWASP.

10DAVOSET
DAVOSET (DDoS attacks via other sites execution tool) is a DDoS tool, written in Perl, that
uses zombie systems to distribute the attack across multiple systems. This tool uses Abuse of
Functionality and XML External Entities vulnerabilities on other sites to "zombie" them and
attack the target site. It includes over 160 zombie services. You can download it from Packet
Storm or GitHub.
11GoldenEye HTTP DoS Tool
GoldenEye is simple DoS tool that loads an HTTP server attempting to exhaust its resource
pool. It's great for testing your website, but not really effective in the real world as most
perimeter defenses will detect it. You can download it from GitHub.

12THC-SSL-DOS
This DDoS tool (built right into Kali) is different from most DoS tools in that it doesn't require
huge amounts of bandwidth and can be conducted with a single system. It attacks
vulnerabilities in SSL to bring down the server. You can download it from THC, but if you are
using Kali, you already have it.
13DDOSIM - Layer 7 DDoS Simulator
This tool from Storm Security simulates a DDoS attack from various zombies with random IP
addresses. It attempts to create a full TCP connection (SYN-SYN/ACK-ACK). As the name
implies, it operates at the application layer (layer 7). It is also capable of simulating a DDoS
attack upon the SMTP server and a TCP flood at random ports. You can download it from
SourceForge.