DDoS attack cripples GitHub coding site, China blamed
Source: Dave Neal
China has been blamed for denying access to code toolshop GitHub
CHINA HAS BEEN BLAMED for a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the GitHub code repository, and criticised for its repeated efforts to quash free speech.
The country is often blamed for attacking web properties, governments, businesses, industries, utilities and its own people's civil liberties, so to find it fingered again is no surprise.
The GitHub attacks began late last week and were described by the code host as "the largest DDoS attack" that it has ever seen.
The post adds that the attack is powerful and sophisticated. "The attack began around 2AM UTC on Thursday, March 26, and involves a wide combination of attack vectors," GitHub explained on the firm's security blog.
"These include every vector we've seen in previous attacks as well as some sophisticated new techniques that use the web browsers of unsuspecting, uninvolved people to flood github.com with high levels of traffic."
GitHub does not pin the attack on anyone but it does appear to be taking advice from external sources.
"Based on reports we've received, we believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content," the firm added.
"We are completely focused on mitigating this attack. Our top priority is making sure github.com is available to all our users while deflecting malicious traffic."
One report, by Chinese security blogger Anthr@x on the Insight-labs forum, said that the attack targets two sections of GitHub that relate to Chinese censorship watchdog Greatfire.org and a local version of The New York Times.
An update to the GitHub status pages earlier today talks about 100 percent service thanks to workaround efforts, but a later note explains that the "DDoS attack has evolved" and that the site is still having problems.
Dave Larson, CTO of Corero Network Security, praised GitHub for its response, but wondered how long the site will be able to keep its defences up while relying on its current tools.
"We are seeing more often that DDoS attacks against web servers evolve over a period of 24-48 hours until they take down a site or their perpetrators give up and move on. GitHub has done the right thing in keeping its users informed of the status of the attacks," he said.
"But when the attackers are sufficiently motivated and have extensive resources, which is common when the perpetrators are powerful syndicates or state actors, as may be the case here, it is difficult to stay ahead of the attack if your response methodology relies on human analysts." µ
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