On Thursday 3 February 2022 at 01:15 UTC, a UDP reflection (NTP) targeted a video streaming customer in Latin America. The attack peaked at 329.0 Gbps and lasted 22 minutes. Traffic originated from 424 autonomous systems in 36 countries, predominantly misconfigured open reflectors.
| Vector | UDP reflection (NTP) |
| Peak | 329.0 Gbps |
| Duration | 22 min |
| Time to mitigation | 0.646 s |
| Attack traffic reaching origin | 0.028% |
| Legitimate traffic challenged | 0.44% |
Timeline
The attack was preceded by no stated motive. Edge packet filters identified the flood by source port and payload signature and dropped it at line rate across 28 points of presence.
What the customer saw
The customer’s status page stayed green throughout; they learned about the attack from our notification.
Recommendations
- Enable authenticated origin pulls.
- Lower challenge thresholds on authentication endpoints during high-risk events.
- Review allow-listed partner ranges quarterly.