| name | performing-bandwidth-throttling-attack-simulation |
| description | Simulate bandwidth throttling and network degradation attacks using tc, iperf3, and Scapy in authorized lab environments to test QoS controls, application resilience, and monitoring detection of traffic manipulation. Use when validating how VoIP, video, or other real-time applications and network monitoring tools respond to degraded bandwidth or slowloris-style throttling attacks.
|
| domain | cybersecurity |
| subdomain | network-security |
| tags | ["network-security","bandwidth-throttling","qos","traffic-shaping","network-resilience"] |
| version | 1.0 |
| author | mahipal |
| license | Apache-2.0 |
| nist_csf | ["PR.IR-01","DE.CM-01","ID.AM-03","PR.DS-02"] |
| mitre_attack | ["T1046","T1040","T1557","T1071"] |
Performing Bandwidth Throttling Attack Simulation
When to Use
- Testing application resilience to degraded network conditions during authorized security assessments
- Validating QoS policies detect and mitigate unauthorized traffic shaping on the network
- Simulating network slowloris-style attacks that degrade bandwidth rather than causing complete outages
- Assessing the impact of bandwidth-based attacks on VoIP, video conferencing, and real-time applications
- Testing network monitoring tools' ability to detect abnormal bandwidth utilization patterns
Do not use on production networks without authorization and a maintenance window, for causing denial-of-service conditions, or against critical infrastructure without safety controls.
Prerequisites
- Written authorization for bandwidth manipulation testing
- Linux system with tc (traffic control), netem, and iptables
- iperf3 installed on both tester and target systems for bandwidth measurement
- MITM position established (ARP spoofing) for traffic interception scenarios
- Network monitoring tools deployed for detecting the simulation
- Baseline bandwidth measurements before testing
Legal Notice: This skill is for authorized security testing and educational purposes only. Unauthorized use against systems you do not own or have written permission to test is illegal and may violate computer fraud laws.
Workflow
Step 1: Establish Baseline Bandwidth Measurements
iperf3 -s -p 5201
iperf3 -c 10.10.20.10 -t 30 -P 4 -p 5201
ping -c 100 10.10.20.10 | tail -1
iperf3 -c 10.10.20.10 -u -b 100M -t 10 -p 5201
echo "Baseline: BW=$(iperf3 -c 10.10.20.10 -t 10 -f m | tail -1 | awk '{print $7}') Mbps" > baseline.txt
echo "Latency: $(ping -c 50 10.10.20.10 | tail -1)" >> baseline.txt
