Is this a denial of service attack?

Question

I have my kern.log flooded by these lines:

Jan  4 03:00:57 myhost kernel: [9040601.809740] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=33285 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:01:09 myhost kernel: [9040613.699425] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=62996 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:01:21 myhost kernel: [9040625.584770] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=26121 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:01:33 myhost kernel: [9040637.471088] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=59140 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:01:45 myhost kernel: [9040649.352450] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=33805 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:01:56 myhost kernel: [9040661.237910] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=33285 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:02:08 myhost kernel: [9040673.116958] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=14341 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:02:20 myhost kernel: [9040685.003337] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=22793 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:02:32 myhost kernel: [9040696.886561] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=32783 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:02:44 myhost kernel: [9040708.770251] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=14854 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:02:56 myhost kernel: [9040720.652454] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=56844 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:03:08 myhost kernel: [9040732.530823] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=4373 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:03:20 myhost kernel: [9040744.409373] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=62989 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:03:32 myhost kernel: [9040756.417865] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=4116 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:03:44 myhost kernel: [9040769.008748] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=16136 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:03:57 myhost kernel: [9040782.192103] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=9476 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44 
Jan  4 03:04:10 myhost kernel: [9040795.020864] iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=10:00:25:09:e7:40:00:21:5e:3f:c4:04:08:00 SRC=178.33.217.13 DST=xx.xx.xx.xx LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=55553 PROTO=UDP SPT=25345 DPT=53 LEN=44

Is this a DoS attack? Of course xx.xx.xx.xx is my IP address (destination).

EDIT: I have a lot of requests from other IPs too, same port though.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 04 '13 at 02:13

3

No, it's not a DDoS, and it's not even obvious that it's any kind of attack at all.

What it is, is a single IP address attempting to contact UDP port 53 on your server. This is the port used by DNS.

Most likely you have recently moved into this server and just got this IP address, and some previous user of the IP address had a DNS server on it.

Since you aren't running a DNS server, you can safely ignore it.

answered Jan 04 '13 at 02:13

Michael Hampton

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I added a note that also other IPs are targeting the same port. 6 MB of file log for 3 days. And anyway it's strange.. I have this IP from june! – MultiformeIngegno Jan 04 '13 at 02:14
Feel free to edit your question, then. If you have significantly large logs, put them in a pastebin and link to it. – Michael Hampton Jan 04 '13 at 02:15
Thanks! :) Here's my whole kern.log (too big for pastebin): lorenzoraffio.com/altro/kern_edited.txt – MultiformeIngegno Jan 04 '13 at 02:28
There are maybe half a dozen unique addresses involved here. So I still don't see any cause for concern. – Michael Hampton Jan 04 '13 at 02:55

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 04 '13 at 02:38

Based on the information you've given it's not possible to tell if this is a DOS or not. But it could be a DNS amplification attack.

A packet capture would be able to shed some light on that. But if it's only 6MB of logs for 3 days I'm going to say that this is unlikely.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 17 '13 at 17:03

THIS IS an DDoS attack, but you are an attacker! (well, almost, because of good iptables rule) To bo more precise, this way you are cooperating with individuals which are attackig host 178.33.217.13. This IP is not an attacker, but this is a victim flooded by answers for dns queries with spoofed IP. In other words, you could answer this way to a host which is not asking you about anything. The good thing is, your firewall is blocking this attack. I'm sure, this is DNS amplification attack.

How can you tell the source is spoofed? – krugger Apr 17 '13 at 17:08 — krugger, Apr 17 '13 at 17:08

Is this a denial of service attack?

3 Answers3