Blue Screen of Death Observed for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 under DDoS Security Attack

Abstract

Microsoft server Operating Systems are considered to have in-built, host based security features that should provide some protection against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. In this paper, we presented results of experiments that were conducted to test the security capability of the latest server Operating System from Microsoft Inc., namely Windows Server 2012 R2. Experi-ments were designed to evaluate its in-built security features in defending against a common Dis-tributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, namely the TCP-SYN based DDoS attack. Surprisingly, it was found that the Windows Server 2012 R2 OS lacked sufficient host-based protection and was found to be unable to defend against even a medium intensity3.1 Gbps-magnitude of TCP-SYN at-tack traffic. The server was found to crash within minutes after displaying a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) under such security attacks.