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attack-surface.md

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Attack Surface Analysis for wg/wrk

Attack Surface: Resource Exhaustion (Denial of Service) - Due to wrk Misconfiguration/Misuse

  • Description: Overwhelming the target system's resources due to improperly configured or misused wrk commands, leading to service degradation or unavailability. This is wrk causing the DoS, not just testing for it.
  • How wrk Contributes: wrk is the direct tool generating the excessive load. The risk stems from how it's used, not an inherent flaw in the target.
  • Example: Running wrk with excessively high -t (threads) and -c (connections) values without proper monitoring or a kill switch, causing the target system to crash. wrk -t100 -c10000 -d600s https://example.com/ (without proper precautions).
  • Impact: Service unavailability, data loss (if transactions are interrupted), potential damage to hardware (in extreme cases).
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Careful Configuration: Start with low values for -t, -c, and -d, and gradually increase them only while closely monitoring the target system.
    • Resource Monitoring: Continuously monitor the target system's resources (CPU, memory, network, application-specific metrics).
    • Kill Switch: Have a readily available method to immediately stop the wrk process.
    • Staged Testing: Test in a staging environment before production.
    • Network Awareness: Ensure the network between wrk and the target has sufficient capacity.

Attack Surface: Malicious Lua Script Execution

  • Description: Running a malicious Lua script with wrk's -s option, leading to arbitrary code execution on the machine running wrk.
  • How wrk Contributes: The -s option of wrk directly enables the execution of arbitrary Lua code. This is the core of the risk.
  • Example: Downloading and running a Lua script from an untrusted source that contains malicious code. wrk -s ./malicious.lua ...
  • Impact: Compromise of the machine running wrk, data theft, malware installation, potential lateral movement.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Never Run Untrusted Scripts: Only run Lua scripts from trusted, verified sources.
    • Code Review: Thoroughly review and audit any custom Lua script before execution.
    • Sandboxing: Run wrk in a sandboxed environment (container, VM) to limit the impact of a compromised script.
    • Principle of Least Privilege: Run wrk as a non-privileged user.

Attack Surface: Compromised wrk Binary

  • Description: Using a wrk binary that has been tampered with, potentially leading to malicious behavior of the wrk process itself.
  • How wrk Contributes: The compromised binary is wrk, so the risk is entirely within the tool itself.
  • Example: Downloading wrk from an unofficial, compromised source.
  • Impact: Compromise of the machine running wrk; the attacker could control the load generation or execute arbitrary code.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Trusted Source: Obtain wrk only from the official GitHub repository.
    • Checksum Verification: Verify the binary's integrity using checksums (if provided).
    • Build from Source: Consider building wrk from source after auditing the code.