Flooding or scrolling on an
IRC
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...
network is a method of disconnecting users from an IRC server (a form of
Denial of Service
In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connec ...
), exhausting bandwidth which causes network latency ('
lag
Lag, or similar, may refer to:
Lag
* Łąg, Poland
* Lag (company), a French guitar maker
* Lag (cue sports), a brief pre-game competition to determine which player will go first
* Latency (engineering), a slower response time in computing, commu ...
'), or just disrupting users. Floods can either be done by scripts (written for a given client) or by external programs.
History
The history of Internet Relay Chat flooding started as a method of
taking over an IRC channel from the original founders of the channel.
The first attacks generally used a modified IRC client or an application to flood a channel or a user.
Later they started to be based on
bots
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
and
scripts
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
.
This later moved on to starting IRC-based botnets which were capable of DDoS and IRC floods.
Types of floods
Connect flood
Connecting and disconnecting from a channel as fast as possible, therefore spamming the channel with dis/connect messages also called q/j flooding.
CTCP flood
Since
CTCP is implemented in almost every client, most users respond to CTCP requests. By sending too many requests, after a couple of answers they get disconnected from the IRC server. The most widely used type is CTCP PING, although some clients also implement other CTCP replies.
DCC flood
This type consists of initiating many
DCC requests simultaneously. Theoretically it can also be used to disconnect users, because the target client sends information back about what port is intended to be used during the DCC session.
ICMP flood
Typically referred to as a
ping
Ping may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Ping, a domesticated Chinese duck in the illustrated book '' The Story about Ping'', first published in 1933
* Ping, a minor character in ''Seinfeld'', an NBC sitcom
* Ping, a c ...
flood. This attack overloads the victim's internet connection with an amount of
ICMP data exceeding the connection's capacity, potentially causing a disconnection from the IRC network. For the duration of the attack, the user's internet connection remains hindered. Technically speaking, this is not an IRC flood, as the attack itself doesn't traverse the IRC network at all, but operates entirely independent of anything but the raw internet connection and its IP protocol (of which ICMP is a subset). Even so, the actual IP address to flood (the address of the victim's connection) is frequently obtained by looking at the victim's user information (e.g. through the /whois or /dns command) on the IRC network.
Invite flood
Sending disruptive numbers of invites to a certain channel.
Post flood
This is the simplest type of IRC flooding. It involves posting large numbers of posts or one very long post with repetitive text. This type of flood can be achieved, for example, by copying and pasting one short word repeatedly.
Message flood
Sending massive numbers of private messages to the victim, mainly from different connections called clones (see below). Since some clients separate the private conversations into another window, each new message could open a new window for every new user a message is received from. This is exploitable by sending messages from multiple names, causing the target client to open many new windows and potentially swamping the user with boxes. Sometimes the easiest way to close all the windows is to restart the IRC client, although scripts (client extensions) exist to 'validate' unknown nicknames before receiving messages from them.
Notice flood
Similar to the message, but uses the "notice" command.
Nick flood
Changing the nick as fast as possible, thus disrupting conversation in the channel.
See also
*
Computer security
Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...
*
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
*
Smurf attack
A Smurf attack is a distributed denial-of-service attack in which large numbers of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets with the intended victim's spoofed source IP are broadcast to a computer network using an IP broadcast address. ...
*
WinNuke In computer security, WinNuke is an example of a Nuke remote denial-of-service attack (DoS) that affected the Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows NT and Microsoft Windows 3.1x computer operating systems. The exploit sent a string of out-of-b ...
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External links
mIRC script database
{{IRC topics
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...