Monitoring and Analyzing SSDP DDoS Amplification Attacks

An Empirical Study of Reflective Amplification Traffic Using Honeypots

Bachelor Thesis (2026)
Author(s)

T.M.J. Guldenmundt (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

Contributor(s)

H.J. Griffioen – Mentor (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

M.J.G. Olsthoorn – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
More Info
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Publication Year
2026
Language
English
Graduation Date
21-06-2026
Awarding Institution
Delft University of Technology
Project
CSE3000 Research Project
Programme
Computer Science and Engineering
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
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Abstract

Distributed Denial-of-Service amplification attacks are a growing threat to modern-day network infrastructure, with the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) being one of the most abused protocols for these attacks. This paper revisits the SSDP amplification attacking landscape by designing, implementing and deploying a honeypot system, to capture real-world attack traffic.

The collected data is analyzed to study how adversaries select their amplifiers, what techniques they use and what countries and industry sectors are most often targeted in these attacks.
The results show a clear preference for high amplification reflectors, an increase in the usage of subnet-wide “carpet bombing” strategies, and a concentration of attacks on ISP and hosting infrastructures.

Altogether this research presents an updated overview of the modern-day SSDP DDoS amplification attack landscape.

Files

Research_paper-final.pdf
(pdf | 0.502 Mb)
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