On Monday 10 February 2025 at 02:53 UTC, a memcached amplification targeted a airline booking customer in the UK. The attack peaked at 142.0 Gbps and lasted 187 minutes. Traffic originated from 433 autonomous systems in 79 countries, predominantly a headless-browser farm.
| Vector | memcached amplification |
| Peak | 142.0 Gbps |
| Duration | 187 min |
| Time to mitigation | 0.643 s |
| Attack traffic reaching origin | 0.011% |
| Legitimate traffic challenged | 0.12% |
Timeline
The attack was preceded by a ransom note demanding payment in Monero. Edge packet filters identified the flood by source port and payload signature and dropped it at line rate across 23 points of presence.
What the customer saw
A brief increase in p99 latency of 140 ms during the first minute, then normal service.
Recommendations
- Enable authenticated origin pulls.
- Review allow-listed partner ranges quarterly.
- Lower challenge thresholds on authentication endpoints during high-risk events.