We count DDoS attacks based on unique real-time fingerprints generated by our systems. In some instances, a single attack or campaign may generate multiple fingerprints, particularly when different mitigation strategies are applied. While this can occasionally lead to higher counts, the metric offers a strong overall indicator of attack activity during a given period.
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Attacks target the Cloudflare network and Internet infrastructure
Of the 20.5 million DDoS attacks blocked in Q1, 16.8 million were network-layer DDoS attacks, and of those, 6.6M targeted Cloudflare’s network infrastructure directly. Another 6.9 million targeted hosting providers and service providers protected by Cloudflare.
In the graph below, daily aggregates of attacks against Cloudflare are represented by the blue line, and the other colors represent the various hosting providers and Internet service providers using Cloudflare’s Magic Transit service that were attacked simultaneously.
Hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks are attacks that exceed 1-2 Tbps or 1 Bpps. In 2025 Q1, we blocked over 700 of these attacks. Approximately 4 out of every 100,000 network-layer DDoS attacks were hyper-volumetric. Hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks tend to take place over UDP.
While this report primarily focuses on 2025 Q1, we believe it is important to also highlight the significant hyper-volumetric record-breaking DDoS attacks that continued into Q2. As such, we have included initial insights from that campaign.
In the second half of April 2025, Cloudflare’s systems automatically detected and blocked dozens of hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks as part of an intense campaign. The largest attacks peaked at 4.8 Bpps and 6.5 Tbps, with these massive surges typically lasting between 35 and 45 seconds. At 6.5 Tbps, this attack matches the largest publicly disclosed DDoS attack to date. The 4.8 Bpps attack is the largest ever to be disclosed from the packet intensity perspective, approximately 52% larger than the previous 3.15 Bpps record.
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The attacks originated from 147 countries and targeted multiple IP addresses and ports of a hosting provider that is protected by Cloudflare Magic Transit. All the attacks were successfully blocked by Cloudflare’s network.
When surveying Cloudflare customers that were targeted by DDoS attacks, the majority said they didn’t know who attacked them. The ones that did know reported their competitors as the number one threat actor behind the attacks (39%), which is similar to last quarter. This is quite common in the gaming and gambling industry.
Another 17% reported that a state-level or state-sponsored threat actor was behind the attack, and a similar percentage reported that a disgruntled user or customer was behind the attack.
Another 11% reported that they mistakenly inflicted the DDoS attack on themselves (self-DDoS) and a similar percentage said an extortionist was behind the attacks. 6% reported that the attacks were launched by disgruntled or former employees.
On the network-layer, SYN flood remains the most common Layer 3/4 DDoS attack vector, followed by DNS flood attacks. Mirai-launched DDoS attacks take the third place, replacing UDP flood attacks.
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In the HTTP realm, over 60% of the attacks were identified and blocked as known botnets, 21% were attacks with suspicious HTTP attributes, another 10% were launched by botnets impersonating browsers, and the remaining 8% were generic floods, attacks of unusual request patterns, and cache busting attacks.
In 2025 Q1, we saw a 3,488% QoQ increase in CLDAP reflection/amplification attacks. CLDAP (Connectionless Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a variant of LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), used for querying and modifying directory services running over IP networks. CLDAP is connectionless, using UDP instead of TCP, making it faster but less reliable. Because it uses UDP, there’s no handshake requirement, which allows attackers to spoof the source IP address, thus allowing attackers to exploit it as a reflection vector. In these attacks, small queries are sent with a spoofed source IP address (the victim's IP), causing servers to send large responses to the victim, overwhelming it. Mitigation involves filtering and monitoring unusual CLDAP traffic.
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We also saw a 2,301% QoQ increase in ESP reflection/amplification attacks. The ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) protocol is part of IPsec and provides confidentiality, authentication, and integrity to network communications. However, it can be abused in DDoS attacks if malicious actors exploit misconfigured or vulnerable systems to reflect or amplify traffic towards a target, leading to service disruption. Like with other protocols, securing and properly configuring the systems using ESP is crucial to block the risks of DDoS attacks.
Despite the increase in hyper-volumetric attacks, most DDoS attacks are small. In 2025 Q1, 99% of Layer 3/4 DDoS attacks were under 1 Gbps and 1 Mpps. Similarly, 94% of HTTP DDoS attacks were 1 million requests per second (rps). However, ‘small’ is a relative term and most Internet properties wouldn’t be able to withstand even those small attacks. They can easily saturate unprotected Internet links and crash unprotected servers.
Furthermore, most attacks are very short-lived. 89% of Layer 3/4 DDoS attacks and 75% of HTTP DDoS attacks end within 10 minutes. Even the largest, record-breaking, hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks can be very short, such as the 35-second attack seen in the examples above. 35 seconds, or even 10 minutes, is not a sufficient time for manual mitigation or activating an on-demand solution: by the time a security analyst receives the alert, and analyzes the attack, it’s already over. And while the attacks may be very short, the trickle effect of attack leads to network and applications failures that can take days to recover from — all whilst services are down or degraded. The current threat landscape leaves no time for human intervention. Detection and mitigation should be always-on, in-line and automated — with sufficient capacity and global coverage to handle the attack traffic along with legitimate peak time traffic.
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On the other hand, hyper-volumetric HTTP DDoS attacks that exceed 1 Mrps doubled their share. In 2025 Q1, 6 out of every 100 HTTP DDoS attacks exceeded 1 Mrps. On the network-layer, 1 out of every 100,000 attacks exceeded 1 Tbps or 1 Bpps.
One example of such an attack targeted a Cloudflare Magic Transit customer. The customer itself is a US-based hosting provider that offers web servers, Voice over IP (VoIP) servers, and game servers amongst its solutions. This specific attack targeted port 27015. This port is most commonly associated with multiplayer gaming servers, especially Valve's Source engine games, such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Team Fortress 2, Garry's Mod, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.
It's used for the game server connection, letting clients connect to the server to play online. In many cases, this port is open for both UDP and TCP, depending on the game and what kind of communication it's doing. This customer was targeted with multiple hyper-volumetric attacks that were autonomously blocked by Cloudflare.
The first quarter of 2025 saw a significant shift in the top 10 most attacked locations globally. Germany made a notable jump, climbing four spots — making it the most attacked country. In second place, Turkey also experienced a surge of 11 spots. In third, China, on the other hand, slipped two spots compared to the previous quarter, while Hong Kong remained unchanged. India rose four spots, and Brazil stayed the same. Taiwan dropped four positions. The Philippines experienced the largest decline, falling 6 spots. South Korea and Indonesia, however, both jumped up by two spots each.
The top 10 most attacked industries in 2025 Q1 saw some notable changes. The Gambling & Casinos industry jumped up four spots as the most attacked industry, while the Telecommunications, Service Providers and Carriers industry slid down one spot. The Information Technology & Services and Internet industries both saw minor fluctuations, moving up one and down two spots, respectively. The Gaming and Banking & Financial Services industries both saw a one-spot increase, while the Cyber Security industry made a massive leap of 37 spots compared to the previous quarter. Retail saw a slight decline of one spot, while the Manufacturing, Machinery, Technology & Engineering industry surged 28 spots. The Airlines, Aviation & Aerospace industry had the biggest jump of all, moving up 40 spots making it the tenth most attacked industry.
The ranking of the top 10 largest sources of DDoS attacks in 2025 Q1 also shifted notably. Hong Kong soared to the number one position, climbing three spots from the previous quarter. Indonesia edged down to second place, while Argentina rose two spots to third. Singapore slipped two spots to fourth, and Ukraine dropped one to fifth. Brazil made a striking leap, climbing seven places to land in sixth place, closely followed by Thailand, which also rose seven spots to seventh. Germany also increased, moving up two positions to eighth. Vietnam made the most dramatic climb, jumping 15 spots to claim ninth place, while Bulgaria rounded out the list, dipping two spots to tenth.
An ASN (Autonomous System Number) is a unique identifier assigned to a network or group of IP networks that operate under a single routing policy on the Internet. It’s used to exchange routing information between systems using protocols like BGP (Border Gateway Protocol).
When looking at where the DDoS attacks originate from, specifically HTTP DDoS attacks, there are a few autonomous systems that stand out. In 2025 Q1, the German-based Hetzner (AS24940) retained its position as the largest source of HTTP DDoS attacks. It was followed by the French-based OVH (AS16276) in second, the US-based DigitalOcean (AS14061) in third, and another German-based provider, Contabo (AS51167), in fourth.
To help hosting providers, cloud computing providers and any Internet service providers identify and take down the abusive accounts that launch these attacks, we leverage Cloudflare’s unique vantage point to provide a free DDoS Botnet Threat Feed for Service Providers. Over 600 organizations worldwide have already signed up for this feed. It gives service providers a list of offending IP addresses from within their ASN that we see launching HTTP DDoS attacks. It’s completely free and all it takes is opening a free Cloudflare account, authenticating the ASN via PeeringDB, and then fetching the threat intelligence via API.
At Cloudflare, our mission is to help build a better Internet. A key part of that commitment is offering free protection against DDoS attacks, as well as supporting the broader Internet community by providing free tools to help other networks detect and dismantle botnets operating within their infrastructure.
As the threat landscape continues to evolve, we see that many organizations still adopt DDoS protection only after experiencing an attack or rely on outdated, on-demand solutions. In contrast, our data shows that those with proactive security strategies are far more resilient. That’s why we focus on automation and a comprehensive, always-on, in-line security approach to stay ahead of both existing and emerging threats.
Backed by our global network with 348 Tbps of capacity spanning 335 cities, we remain dedicated to delivering unmetered, unlimited DDoS protection, regardless of the size, duration, or frequency of attacks.
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