A QUIC Flooding Attack Simulation Using NS-3

QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connection) is a modern transport-layer internet protocol designed to be more efficient and secure than TCP. To enhance performance, QUIC reduces the number of messages required during the connection process while addressing secure connection and security concerns. However, this approach results in heavier packets and higher processing demands on the server side compared to TCP. These characteristics can be exploited by attackers to conduct flooding attacks, depleting the victim's computing resources. Modeling such attacks can help researchers develop effective countermeasures, but doing so in practice remains a highly challenging task. In this paper, we implemented an attacker module for performing QUIC flooding attacks within the NS-3 network simulator. Using a network simulator provides the advantage of freely modifying complex network topologies and attack models while obtaining diverse simulation results. By configuring network topologies with the implemented attacker module, we investigated the impact of the attacker's flooding attacks on the server. Simulation results confirmed the effectiveness of the attack, revealing that it caused more than a threefold increase in transmission delays compared to simple attack packets.