High Orbit Ion Cannon (HOIC)

The High Orbit Ion Cannon (HOIC) is an open-source web application designed to carry out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. HOIC enables an attacker to launch floods of HTTP requests to overload web servers and take down websites or online services.

What is HOIC

HOIC is a network stress testing tool written in programming languages like C# and Visual Basic. It was created as an open-source alternative to replace the original Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) application that was used to perform volume-based DDoS attacks.

Key features provided by HOIC include:

• Generating high volumes of GET and POST web requests
• Support for targeting multiple URLs/domains concurrently
• Graphical and command-line attack interfaces
• Scripting capabilities to customize attack parameters
• SOCKS proxy support to obfuscate traffic
• TLS 1.2 encryption to bypass restrictions
• Automated update capability to evade blacklist blocking

While ostensibly designed for stress testing, in practice, HOIC is predominantly used maliciously to overload and disrupt websites and web applications via DDoS attack.

Difference Between HOIC and LOIC

HOIC was developed as an advancement over the original Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) tool to add more sophisticated DDoS capabilities:

• Concurrent Attacks – HOIC can target multiple URLs or domains simultaneously versus LOIC which floods a single target.
• Obfuscation – HOIC has built-in features like proxies and TLS encryption to hide the attack source.
• Scripting – HOIC supports customizable attack scripting whereas LOIC relies on manual configuration.
• Evasion – AUTO updates modify HOIC signatures to avoid blacklists detecting known versions.
• Automation – HOIC enables more automated attacks through scripting compared to manual operation of LOIC.
• Web-Based – HOIC utilizes web lists to coordinate attacks anonymously across many volunteers.

Overall, HOIC represents an evolution of LOIC, providing more advanced, stealthy, and automated DDoS attack options.

How HOIC Attack Works

A typical DDoS attack using HOIC works by flooding the target website with repeated HTTP requests at a high rate. This aims to consume available bandwidth and exhaust server resources like CPU, memory, and simultaneous connection limits.

Here are some key ways HOIC is used to achieve denial-of-service:

• HTTP FLOOD – Barrages the target with duplicate GET or POST requests overwhelming capacity.
• CC ATTACK – Hits multiple pages/endpoints concurrently to maximize resource consumption.
• SSL ATTACK – Uses TLS encryption to bypass application firewall restrictions.
• SCRIPTING – Custom scripts allow flexible configuring attack patterns.
• PROXY – Proxies obfuscate the source of attacks and distribute traffic.
• AUTO-UPDATING – Frequent version updates evade blacklists blocking known versions.

The end result of a HOIC attack is a target site slowing down or crashing due to resource exhaustion.

History and Origins

HOIC was originally developed around 2010 as an open-source alternative to LOIC, aimed at resolving limitations in LOIC’s basic flooding capabilities.

HOIC gained popularity in 2011 when the hacktivist group Anonymous used it to launch politically motivated DDoS attacks on organizations like PayPal, MasterCard, and Sony in a campaign dubbed Operation Payback.

This leveraging of HOIC transformed it from an obscure stress testing utility into one of the most high-profile DDoS tools, though its legal usage is questionable.

Using HOIC for DDoS Attacks

HOIC provides a simple interface accessible to novice users for performing application-layer DDoS attacks:

• The visual dashboard allows entering target URLs, configuring request rates, and initiating attacks.
• Command-line options support automation with scripts and proxies.
• Web-based lists provide up-to-date targets and attack details to participants.

Users join voluntary botnets by running HOIC to contribute attack traffic against published targets. This combines multiple HOIC instances into potent DDoS swarms.

However, these uses typically violate laws against computer hacking, abuse, and denial-of-service.

Defending Against HOIC DDoS

Effective techniques to defend against HOIC DDoS attacks include:

• Blacklisting – Blocking known HOIC command servers and traffic sources.
• Reputation Filtering – Denying requests from low-reputation IPs engaged in malicious requests.
• Rate Limiting – Restricting HTTP requests per source to counter application floods.
• Load Balancing – Distributing traffic across multiple servers to increase capacity.
• TLS Inspection – Decrypting packets to identify TLS-concealed attacks.
• Edge Filtering – Filtering obvious malicious HOIC traffic, like duplicate requests.
• CDN Caching – Using content delivery networks (CDNs) to cache and absorb attack traffic.
• DDoS Mitigation – Redirecting traffic through DDoS mitigation service providers.
• Attack Monitoring – Analytics to quickly detect HOIC and other DDoS patterns.

Defense should utilize a layered security model to counter the various tactics of DDoS tools like HOIC.

Legal and Ethical Issues

Despite being an open-source tool, the predominant use of HOIC to disable websites without authorization raises serious legal concerns:

• Violates laws like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) against unauthorized computer access and damage.
• DDoS extortion attempts using HOIC may constitute criminal extortion.
• Websites impaired by HOIC can file civil lawsuits for damages like loss of business.
• Many participants in voluntary HOIC botnets fail to grasp their own liability for potential felony charges.
• Claims of “free speech” rarely exempt malicious use of tools like HOIC under the law.

In general, HOIC should only be used for authorized performance testing on isolated environments. Launching attacks on live websites is unethical and illegal.

Conclusion

HOIC simplifies the act of launching application-layer DDoS attacks by harnessing multiple computers into a massively parallel botnet. While ostensibly a stress testing tool, HOIC is predominately used for illegal denial-of-service attacks.

How to Mitigate and Protect Systems from HOIC

When it comes to DDoS mitigation, the rule of thumb is: moments to go down, hours to recover. This is why, when defending against an attack, every second counts.

Implementing a DDoS protection solution and web application firewall (WAF) can help filter out and manage high volumes of malicious traffic while ensuring that legitimate users are still able to access the website or application.

Imperva DDoS Protection proxies all incoming traffic to block DDoS attacks from reaching your origin servers.

Imperva secures websites, networks, DNS servers, and individual IPs from network and application layer DDoS attacks. The cloud-based service keeps business operations running at high performance levels, even during an attack.