Cable Forum - View Single Post - ‘Anonymous’ hackers plan to shut down the Internet this Saturday

AbyssUnderground · 30-03-2012, 12:15

For those who don't understand how they can do this, let me explain...

- Browser asks Local DNS cache for records
- If the cache is expired or doesn't exist, browser asks root servers for the domain's name server IP's
- Root servers tell your browser the IP's of where to ask for the DNS records for that domain
- Browser then asks the DNS server for where to look for the site
- Browser then looks for the site.

If the root DNS servers (step 2 in bold) can't be accessed, that's it. Domains go offline because the browser doesn't know the IP's of the name servers that domain's DNS records are on, and there is no way around that. It's a fundamental part of how the domain name system works. Yes, these root servers are load balanced and there are hundreds of multi-homed servers behind each, but it is still possible to take them down with enough overwhelming traffic.

If they don't manage to take the net down, they could at the least slow it down by making DNS responses to the root servers slower than normal. Of course downloads are unaffected.

30-03-2012, 12:15	#25
AbyssUnderground cf.mega poster Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Merseyside Age: 36 Services: BT Infinity Option 2, HH5, synced at maximum 80Mbps/20Mbps. Posts: 2,221	Re: ‘Anonymous’ hackers plan to shut down the Internet this Saturday For those who don't understand how they can do this, let me explain... - Browser asks Local DNS cache for records - If the cache is expired or doesn't exist, browser asks root servers for the domain's name server IP's - Root servers tell your browser the IP's of where to ask for the DNS records for that domain - Browser then asks the DNS server for where to look for the site - Browser then looks for the site. If the root DNS servers (step 2 in bold) can't be accessed, that's it. Domains go offline because the browser doesn't know the IP's of the name servers that domain's DNS records are on, and there is no way around that. It's a fundamental part of how the domain name system works. Yes, these root servers are load balanced and there are hundreds of multi-homed servers behind each, but it is still possible to take them down with enough overwhelming traffic. If they don't manage to take the net down, they could at the least slow it down by making DNS responses to the root servers slower than normal. Of course downloads are unaffected.