Guys, how exactly are these constant bot attacks technically carried out? For example, what methods do DDoS, credential stuffing, or spam bots use? If there are technical details like those operating with GET/POST floods or those that prevent SSL handshakes, could you share them? I'm not asking how to perform a similar attack, just want to understand the mechanism.
How do DDoS attacks work?
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Bot attacks usually work with a few basic mechanisms, bro, and one of the most common is **DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)**. In this case, attackers send a massive number of fake requests to the target system—like in a GET/POST flood, where they flood the server with straight-up HTTP requests until its capacity is maxed out. They usually pull this off using something called a botnet, which is basically an army of infected devices. When they all attack at once, the traffic becomes way more powerful.
Some go even further, like launching **SSL Handshake attacks**, for example, SSL renegotiation attacks that force the server to refuse to establish enough connections. Or they might use **credential stuffing**, where they automatically test stolen username/password combos because people tend to reuse the same password everywhere. I don’t wanna get too deep into the technical details, but at the simplest level, bots either use automated clients (like Python’s *requests* library) or browser automation tools (Selenium, Puppeteer).
As for solutions, rate limiting on the hosting/firewall side and using a WAF usually do the trick.
Bot attacks usually involve simple overflows and trying to overwhelm servers with a ton of requests, bro. Like, when you look at DDoS from the simplest to the most complex, there's something called GET/POST flooding where you just grab a botnet (or your own script) and spam the target site with endless requests. Especially with HTTP flooding, the server has to process every single request, so its resources get drained fast. There's also the SSL handshake trick, where bots keep opening new connections and dropping the SSL setup halfway, forcing the server to waste resources cleaning up those half-open connections.
With credential stuffing, they take a leaked username/password list from a database and just keep trying to log in with them. Most sites will either throw an error or lock the account when they detect so many automated login attempts. Spam bots work similarly, just auto-filling forms and spamming content. The big advantage of a well-oiled botnet is just the sheer volume of requests or login attempts it can make. If someone wants to try a similar attack, they might use "open proxies" or "dirty VPNs," but like I said, just understand the mechanism.