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Attack Surface Analysis for librespeed/speedtest

Attack Surface: Denial of Service (DoS) / Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Amplification

  • Attack: Denial of Service (DoS) / Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Amplification

    • Description: Attackers exploit the speed test server to amplify their attacks against other targets. Small requests to the speed test server generate large responses directed at the victim's IP address (which the attacker has spoofed).
    • How Speedtest Contributes: The fundamental operation of a speed test (sending/receiving large data volumes) is the direct mechanism for amplification. This is inherent to the tool's purpose.
    • Example: An attacker spoofs the source IP of a target website and sends a request to the speed test server. The server's large response (upload test data) floods the target.
    • Impact:
      • Targeted website/service unavailability.
      • Speed test server unavailability/degradation.
      • Financial and reputational damage.
    • Risk Severity: Critical
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Rate Limiting: Strict, configurable rate limiting (tests and bandwidth per IP/subnet). This is the primary defense.
      • IP Reputation: Block/limit requests from known malicious IPs.
      • CAPTCHA/Challenge-Response: Consider a CAPTCHA before large tests (configurable on/off, threshold).
      • Traffic Shaping/Filtering: Network-level prioritization of legitimate traffic; drop abusive patterns.
      • Monitoring and Alerting: Robust monitoring for traffic spikes; rapid alerting.
      • Disable Unnecessary Features: Disable upload/ping tests if not absolutely required.
      • Geolocation Restrictions: Limit access to intended geographic regions.

Attack Surface: Server Resource Exhaustion

  • Attack: Server Resource Exhaustion

    • Description: Attackers (or many legitimate users) send numerous concurrent speed test requests, overwhelming server resources (CPU, memory, bandwidth, file descriptors), leading to server unresponsiveness.
    • How Speedtest Contributes: Speed tests, by design, consume significant resources. This is a direct consequence of their function.
    • Example: A botnet initiates thousands of simultaneous speed tests, exhausting server memory and causing a crash.
    • Impact:
      • Speed test server unavailability.
      • Potential disruption of other co-hosted services.
      • Possible data loss (if a crash occurs).
    • Risk Severity: High
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Resource Limits: Configure strict limits on the web server and application (e.g., cgroups in Linux).
      • Load Balancing: Distribute load across multiple servers.
      • Optimized Code: Ensure the speed test application itself is highly optimized for performance. This is a developer-focused mitigation.
      • Monitoring: Continuously monitor server resource usage; alert on high utilization.