DDoS-as-a-Service Investigating Booter Websites José Jair Cardoso de Santanna Graduation Committee: Chairman: prof. dr. P.M.G. Apers Supervisor: prof. dr. ir. A. Pras Co-supervisor: prof. dr. L. Z. Granville Co-supervisor: dr. R. de O. Schmidt Members: prof. dr. O. Festor, TELECOM Nancy - University of Lorraine, France prof. dr. J. Schönwälder, Jacobs University, Germany prof. dr. M.J.G. van Eeten, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands prof. dr. ir. L.J.M. Nieuwenhuis, University of Twente, The Netherlands prof. dr. ir. B.R.H.M. Haverkort, University of Twente, The Netherlands Funding Sources: Flamingo Network of Excellence (EU FP7 318488) Distributed Denial-of-Service Defense—D3 (NWO 628.001.018) CTIT Ph.D. thesis Series No: 17-448 Centre for Telematics and Information Technology P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, the Netherlands ISSN 1381-3617 ISBN 978-90-365-4429-0 DOI https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036544290 Cover design by Davi Souza. Type set with LATEX. Printed by IPSKAMP. Copyright c 2017 José Jair Cardoso de Santanna This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ DDoS-as-a-Service Investigating Booter Websites DISSERTATION to obtain the degree of doctor at the University of Twente, on the authority of the rector magnificus, prof. dr. T.T.M. Palstra, on account of the decision of the graduation committee, to be publicly defended on the 17th of November 2017 at 14:45 by José Jair Cardoso de Santanna born on the 11th October 1987 in Belém, Brazil This dissertation has been approved by: prof. dr. ir. A. Pras (supervisor) prof. dr. L.Z. Granville (co-supervisor) dr. R. de O. Schmidt (co-supervisor) on the 17th August 2017 Acknowledgments First of all, I thank God, “someone” that I’ve learned to love, believe, and fear, observing His daily acts in my life in a mysterious way. I thank Him that taught me that cultivating my dreams with hard work, hope, and patience, followed by watering from my sweat and tears, I would harvest with joy (and a lot of joy). I thank Him for (somehow) helping me to stand when I was broken and lonely, for always making me feel I am special, as in the story that little David faced the giant Goliath (the Bible, Book 1 Samuel, Chapter 17). I am thankful to my best friend, the present and future love of my life, Priscillinha. She is the “little parrot” that has decided to fly with this one crazy parrot (i.e., myself). Thank you for supporting me even when you did not understand what was going on. Thank you for respecting our differences and discuss them with such care and love. Thank you for being always there, even when sleeping. I love loving you. I am also extremely thankful to my determined mother, Fátima. Dear mother, I always listen and respect what you told me, even while complaining (and sometimes I complained quite a lot). Note that even your most recurring advise was rigorously respected: “study comes first!” So, here I am, my sweet mother! And now, am I allowed to start building a family of my own? Actually, I already know the answer, of course, and I am thankful for your blessing. I also thank my sister, Lorena, who once taught me that each person has their own time and pace. You are the one that better understands and protects me, even one-ocean far away. Also thank you for bringing to my life the best brother-in-law out there. I would like to extend my gratitude to my other siblings, João and Angélica, who taught me that flying far from home is possible, and also to Eliana (Jupirinha), who is not blood of my blood but is just as if it was. I would like to thank my four families: the Cardoso’s, the Santanna’s, and also the van Duren’s, and the Hul’s. Thank you for your support and examples that were set to me. Although you are completely different among each other, we all have the same values of loving and protecting our families. Soon we will be all legally linked to each other. I am also thankful to my great friends, of course, who care for me: Rafa, Sanjka, Sofia, Luinha, Anuj, Orsi, Ricardo, Pedro, Renata, Muleque, Cecília, Tiago, L¯ıga,Andrea, and Niko. Thanks for vii making me feel at home wherever we are! A special thanks goes to few friends from Belém, Brazil, who even far never let me without prayers: Diogo, Élida, João, Camila, Marcelo, and Ádria. Thank you very much! During the last four years (2013–2017), I’ve made so many friends around the world! In this category, I need to acknowledge my three flatmates (Niko, Martin, and Andrea) who taught me how to share a flat and parts of my life. And there is Anja, Victor, and Alex that I had the pleasure to share great experiences traveling together. Of course I would not forget all the (party) people I met in Enschede and all over the world, being part of enjoyable moments that helped me relaxing a bit from my academic life. Of course special thanks to my supervisors. I thank Aiko for the long talks about life and a lot of great lessons given and taken. Thank you for allowing me to try, fail and succeed, growing me stronger every time. Aiko, I really admire you! Lisandro, I also admire you because of your hard work and objectivity. You really inspire me! My gratefulness to my friend Ricardo. Thanks for being more than I supervisor, for letting me learn from your experiences. I am proud to be the first Ph.D. student in your curriculum. You did great! I also would like to thank Jeanette for “supervising me”, as well as the entire group, as a great mother. We are very lucky to have you caring for us. I thank my working colleagues: Anna, Björn, Rick, Mattijs, Mozhdeh, Morteza, Luuk, Wouter, Roland, Bernd, Stysia, Jessica, Hamed, and my Brazilian predecessors Ricardo, Rafael, Giovane, Idilio and Tiago for preparing me for the long discussions about thesis with my promoter. Special thanks to Björn for the blessed words during our short walks. I also thank the great young minds that I had a pleasure to somehow support on their researches: Jochum, Dirk, Jarmo, Max, Mark, Roeland, Wouter, Justyna, Joey, Calvin, Kareem, and many others like Jan Harm and Romain Durban whom I had the pleasure to work with. You are one of the main reasons why I love the academic career. Seeing you flying high makes me super proud! In the same way that I supported students, some people supported and were essential for my work to be what it is. I would like to thank the guys from SURFnet (Roland, Xander and Wim), the guys from NBIP (Gerald and Pim), Daphné and David Douglas. I would like to conclude my acknowledgements thanking my father, Santanna, my true hero! He is the man with the biggest heart that I ever met. Although a terrible partner, you are a great father (at least for me, “teu velho Sabidú e Mirurica”). Thanks for quitting football just to see me grow strong. You made it! Your kids are all grown-ups, happy and united. This was one of your last goals, wasn’t it? Dear father, even when your memory fades away, my memory will keep you alive. In the last moments, I will be there making you love the unknown, in the same way that you teach me to love it. Then, when the moment comes, go in peace! I will always love you. Agradecimentos Primeiramente, eu agradeço a Deus, quem eu aprendi a acreditar, temer, amar e observar atuando misteriosamente na minha vida. Eu agradeço a Ele que me ensinou que plantando com trabalho duro, esperança e paciência, e regando com o meu suor e lágrimas, eu colheria com alegria (muita alegria). Eu agradeço a Ele que (de alguma forma) me ajuda a permanecer em pé quando eu me sinto em cacos e sozinho. Obrigado for me fazer sentir especial, como na estória do pequeno Davi contra o gigante Golias (Bíblia, livro 1 de Samuel, capítulo 17). Eu agradeço à minha melhor amiga e amor, meu presente e futuro, Priscillinha. Ela que é o “pequeno papagaio” que decidiu voar junto comigo. Obrigado por me apoiar mesmo sem entender. Obrigado por respeitar as nossas diferenças e discuti-las com zelo e amor. Obrigado por estar sempre comigo (mesmo enquanto dormia). Eu amo te amar. Eu agradeço à minha forte mãe, Fátima. Amada mãe, eu sempre te escutei e te respeitei (mesmo quando eu reclamei [bastante]). Perceba que até o seu mais frequente conselho foi seguido: “O estudo vem em primeiro lugar”. Aqui estou eu, minha doce mãe! Agora estou liberado para construir minha própria família? (Eu já sei a resposta. Obrigado pela sua bênção). Eu agradeço à minha doce irmã, Lorena, que me ensinou que cada pessoa tem o seu próprio tempo. Ela que é “a minha cópia da pérola” que “permaneceu por mais tempo dentro da concha”. Você é a pessoa que mais me entende e protege (mesmo com um oceano de distância). Obrigado por decidir me dar o melhor cunhado que eu poderia ter. Em seguida, eu agradeço aos meus irmãos João e Angélica que me ensinaram com atitude que sair para longe de casa era possível. E não posso deixar de agradecer à Eliana (Jupirinha), que não é meu sangue, mas eu sinto como se fosse.