Dictionary · Hacking Techniques and Methodologies
Denial of Service
DoS — Denial of Service
Network attacks · Intermediate
A condition in which legitimate users cannot reach a service because its capacity or a dependency is exhausted. Defenders use capacity planning, rate limits, and upstream filtering.
The harm is unavailability. It can come from an attack or from a bug and a traffic spike. This site names the condition and the defenses, and it does not describe how to disrupt a service.
Example: A provider's filtering absorbs a traffic flood so the origin servers remain available to customers. That response is aimed at availability.
Common misconception
- The term describes the impact, not a tool. A traffic spike from a sale can cause the same user-facing failure as a hostile flood.