{ "model": { "rank": 6118, "code": "thing-q131406", "model_id": "vr.tr.denial-of-service-attack", "name": "denial-of-service attack", "purpose": "Let an agent explain denial-of-service attacks for defence, detection, response and reporting, without giving any help to carry one out.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.TME", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q131406/", "tier": 2, "score": 62, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "resource exhaustion attack", "distributed denial-of-service attack", "Teardrop attack", "ping of death", "HTTP Flood", "packet drop attack", "UDP flood attack", "billion laughs attack", "email bomb", "Christmas tree packet", "fork bomb", "flooding", "INVITE of Death", "Smurf attack", "ping flood", "Internet Relay Chat flood", "SYN flood", "HTTP POST flood" ], "aliasCount": 18, "merged": 18, "knownIn": 62, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q131406", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q131406", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T06:57:21Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q131406", "registryId": "vr.tr.denial-of-service-attack", "name": "denial-of-service attack", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.TME" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q131406/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.denial-of-service-attack", "name": "denial-of-service attack", "purpose": "Let an agent explain denial-of-service attacks for defence, detection, response and reporting, without giving any help to carry one out.", "definition": "A cyberattack that makes a service, network or machine unavailable to its intended users by overwhelming or exhausting its resources; distributed attacks (DDoS) use many sources at once.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding a threat in order to protect services.", "affordances": [ "prepare defences with providers", "detect and mitigate attacks", "respond and communicate during incidents", "report attacks to authorities or CERTs" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Targets availability", "Single-source or distributed", "Illegal in most jurisdictions", "Mitigated by filtering, capacity and scrubbing services" ], "appearance": "Services slow down or become unreachable; traffic graphs spike.", "visual_identification": [ "Sudden traffic spikes and timeouts", "Categories such as volumetric, protocol and application layer", "Legitimate traffic surges look similar" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "volumetric attacks", "protocol attacks", "application-layer attacks", "distributed denial of service", "resource exhaustion attacks" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "cyberattack", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "targets", "target": "availability", "why": "security property" }, { "relation": "is mitigated by", "target": "network security", "why": "defence" }, { "relation": "is prohibited by", "target": "computer misuse law", "why": "law" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Council of Europe Budapest Convention", "National computer misuse laws", "NIS2 incident reporting", "NIST SP 800-61 incident handling" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Service outages affecting essential services", "Mistaking legitimate surges for attacks", "Attacks used as cover for other intrusions" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "detection", "name": "Detection", "description": "Is it an attack.", "rationale": "Detection starts response.", "layers": [ { "id": "signs", "name": "Signs", "description": "Symptoms.", "findings": [ { "id": "signs-finding", "name": "Signs", "description": "Signs.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the outage caused by an attack or a legitimate surge?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which monitoring data shows it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "category", "name": "Category", "description": "Layer.", "findings": [ { "id": "category-finding", "name": "Category", "description": "Attack category.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is it volumetric, protocol or application layer?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which resources are exhausted?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "mitigation", "name": "Mitigation", "description": "Defence.", "rationale": "Defence needs preparation.", "layers": [ { "id": "provider", "name": "Provider", "description": "Upstream help.", "findings": [ { "id": "provider-finding", "name": "Provider", "description": "Provider mitigation.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the hosting or network provider offer DDoS protection?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "How is it activated?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "architecture", "name": "Architecture", "description": "Resilience.", "findings": [ { "id": "architecture-finding", "name": "Architecture", "description": "Resilient design.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which design measures improve resilience?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Are they tested?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "response", "name": "Response", "description": "During an incident.", "rationale": "Response limits damage.", "layers": [ { "id": "plan", "name": "Plan", "description": "Incident plan.", "findings": [ { "id": "plan-finding", "name": "Plan", "description": "Incident plan.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does the incident response plan say?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Who is on call?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "communication", "name": "Communication", "description": "Users.", "findings": [ { "id": "communication-finding", "name": "Communication", "description": "User communication.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are users informed?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Where is the status page?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Reporting and limits.", "rationale": "DoS is a crime.", "layers": [ { "id": "reporting", "name": "Reporting", "description": "Authorities.", "findings": [ { "id": "reporting-finding", "name": "Reporting", "description": "Reporting.", "questions": [ { "text": "Must the incident be reported, and to whom?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Within what deadline?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "No facilitation.", "findings": [ { "id": "limits-finding", "name": "Limits", "description": "What not to provide.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the request asking how to launch an attack?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How should the agent respond?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should attack categories be separate entries?", "How should incident reports be linked?", "How should defensive guidance be kept free of offensive detail?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a denial-of-service attack, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain denial-of-service attacks for defence, detection, response and reporting, without giving any help to carry one out.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: resource exhaustion attack, distributed denial-of-service attack, Teardrop attack, ping of death, HTTP Flood, packet drop attack, UDP flood attack, billion laughs attack, email bomb, Christmas tree packet, fork bomb, flooding.", "18 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 62 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a denial-of-service attack, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "resource exhaustion attack", "distributed denial-of-service attack", "Teardrop attack", "ping of death", "HTTP Flood", "packet drop attack", "UDP flood attack", "billion laughs attack", "email bomb", "Christmas tree packet", "fork bomb", "flooding" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 62 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 18 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one denial-of-service attack from another, and a denial-of-service attack from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a denial-of-service attack, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a denial-of-service attack, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a denial-of-service attack is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a denial-of-service attack, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a denial-of-service attack, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a denial-of-service attack is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a denial-of-service attack sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a denial-of-service attack, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a denial-of-service attack, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a denial-of-service attack is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a denial-of-service attack from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a denial-of-service attack, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a denial-of-service attack, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a denial-of-service attack is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a denial-of-service attack passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a denial-of-service attack between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a denial-of-service attack, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a denial-of-service attack, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a denial-of-service attack is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a denial-of-service attack, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a denial-of-service attack is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a denial-of-service attack, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a denial-of-service attack, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a denial-of-service attack is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What denial-of-service attack is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of denial-of-service attack are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is denial-of-service attack operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of denial-of-service attack and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of denial-of-service attack?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as denial-of-service attack?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a denial-of-service attack came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a denial-of-service attack and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a denial-of-service attack, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a denial-of-service attack, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a denial-of-service attack is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a denial-of-service attack is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a denial-of-service attack, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a denial-of-service attack, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a denial-of-service attack is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }