Forum archive 2000-2006

Lucas Carey - overloading the system

Lucas Carey - overloading the system

by Arnold Pizer -
Number of replies: 0
inactiveTopicoverloading the system topic started 2/19/2001; 1:10:56 AM
last post 2/19/2001; 12:01:34 PM
userLucas Carey - overloading the system  blueArrow
2/19/2001; 1:10:56 AM (reads: 1139, responses: 2)
I was watching top while clicking through webwork and I found that by hitting next problem repetedly i was able to create enough latex2html instances to bring my load up over 10 and bring my ssh promt to a standstill. This could be used very easily as a DOS to bring any system to a halt right before the deadline. Its fairly easy to see this if done by a uses, as the connects appear in the access_log, but this would need to be checked for a certain # of commands within a set period of time. A practice user, from a public lab, could very easily prevent people from doing thier work.

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userZbigniew Fiedorowicz - Re: overloading the system  blueArrow
2/19/2001; 11:36:11 AM (reads: 1331, responses: 0)
I don't think this DOS attack would work if you had precreated the problems beforehand.

Zig

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userZbigniew Fiedorowicz - Re: overloading the system  blueArrow
2/19/2001; 12:01:34 PM (reads: 1347, responses: 0)
Just a followup to my comment above. You can get the same DOS effect by rapidly alternating between clicking on "Do Problem Set" and "Get Hard Copy" buttons. This would work regardless of whether the problem set was precreated.

Zig

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