Conclusions
Vulnerabilities in web applications can allow attackers to exhaust available resources and thereby deny access to legitimate users. Companies that rely on web applications to provide critical business functions are therefore at risk from attackers wishing to disrupt these functions by exploiting application level vulnerabilities.
Application based DoS attacks require considerably less resource in terms of processing power and bandwidth on the part of the attacker, and therefore present a higher risk to business as the number of possible threat-agents is much greater.
The possibility of a denial of service attack should be considered when designing, implementing and providing applications, and appropriate strategies and mitigation techniques put in place within the application.