The dark web has suffered incessant distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that are famous for destroying entire dark web marketplaces and forums.
DDoS attacks are normally witnessed in situations involving extortion attempts by cybercriminals targeting hidden websites, in cases where rival darknet marketplaces look to knock down their competition, as well as law enforcement operations to disable notorious cybercriminal platforms.
In recent news, dark web researchers have discovered the creation of a new DDoS protection mechanism called EndGame, which was first announced on the popular Dread darknet forum.
The tool is the product of a collaborative effort between various dark web actors to create a solution against DDoS attacks.
EndGame can be viewed as the much-needed solution to cybercriminal needs – it will provide dark web markets with some protection against one of their biggest threats.
Understanding the EndGame DDoS Protection Mechanism
As reported by Digital Shadows, a May 2020 post on the Dread forum announced the release of the new DDoS protection tool called “EndGame” which, quite interestingly, was created to be used by all members of the dark web community at no charge.
Essentially, EndGame is an assortment of cyber tools whose build is designed to prevent DDoS attacks levelled by threat actors against dark web marketplaces and forums.
Digital Shadows researchers believe that establishment of the EndGame tool has been a long journey for its creators, with mentions being made about the thousands of lines of code and months of tests that went into its build.
Apart from information concerning some 8 open source projects, 6 open source NGINX modules and 6 open source libraries that were utilized in the EndGame creation process, much of the information has been withheld from the public.
It turns out that the tool’s creators chose to share it on Dread to gather the dark web community’s opinion, with EndGame developers being said to have contributed towards a combined effort in developing the landmark DDoS protection mechanism.
Reportedly, the much-needed support was mobilized from darknet marketplace affiliates from White House Market, Big Blue Market and the now-defunct Empire Market, which had suffered a series of DDoS attacks before finally closing down in 2020 due to an alleged $30 million exit scam.
The Main Features
The Digital Shadows blog highlighted some of EndGame’s notable features and characteristics as expressed by the post published by the Dread forum moderator.
The tool is “free for all to use” and encompasses a collation of various technologies that work synergistically to protect the critical application servers on a dark web service using cyber safety and privacy as a standard.
EndGame is fully scripted and can be deployed easily whenever the need arises. A well-built core allows the tool to provide a plethora of options as far as mass scaling is concerned, with EndGame users set to benefit from its easy-to-configure design that meets various dark web service needs.
In highlight, the anti-DDoS tool has been designed to operate without the need for a trusted or middle party, thus making it a locally created and operated mechanism to ward off the barrage of cyber-attacks that have targeted dark web marketplaces for long.
Conclusion
If EndGame achieves its objectives by gaining widespread support from the dark web community, it is clear that we may come to witness a surge in darknet markets and forums that will stay ahead of the notorious DDoS attacks.
However, DDoS attacks may persist in case threat actors manage to identify and exploit a vulnerability in the protection mechanism. The idea will only work if dark web platforms will focus their time and resources to craft protection measures that will prove too costly for adversaries to breach.
