A company recently moved its software development architecture from VMs to containers. The company has asked a penetration tester to determine if the new containers are configured correctly against a DDoS attack.
Which of the following should a tester perform FIRST?
The first step a penetration tester should take when assessing containers for DDoS attack susceptibility is to scan the containers for open ports. Open ports can serve as entry points for DDoS attacks, thus identifying and securing these ports can prevent attackers from exploiting them to perform a DDoS attack. While other options, like checking encryption settings or the availability of security tokens, are important for overall security, they do not directly relate to DDoS-specific vulnerabilities in the context of containers.
D. Scan the containers for open ports.
D. Scan the containers for open ports: DDoS attacks often target services exposed through open ports. By scanning the containers for open ports, the tester can identify potential entry points for DDoS attacks and assess whether unnecessary services are exposed, which is critical in mitigating DDoS risks. A. Check the strength of the encryption settings: While important for data security, this does not directly relate to the susceptibility of the containers to a DDoS attack. B. Determine if security tokens are easily available: This relates to authentication and authorization but not specifically to DDoS protection. C. Run a vulnerability check against the hypervisor: This is more relevant to VM environments. Containers typically run directly on the host OS, not a hypervisor.
From Cloudflare: Several methods for reducing this exposure include restricting traffic to specific locations, implementing a load balancer, and blocking communication from outdated or unused ports, protocols, and applications.