According to the latest Fortinet's Threat Landscape report, the new "Apache Killer" tool is currently being used to exploit an Apache Server vulnerability that could be used to launch denial of service (DoS) attacks against Web hosts running older versions of Apache.
Apache has fixed the flaw and recommends users immediately upgrade to Apache 2.2.20.
"Operation Occupy Wall Street," a grass roots protest movement formed in early July to draw attention to what the group perceives as corruption and greed on Wall Street, received assistance in late August from hacktivist group "Anonymous." Anonymous, widely known for rallying behind WikiLeaks director, Julian Assange, by engaging in distributed denial of service attacks (DDos) against PayPal, MasterCard, Visa and others, recently deployed a new DDoS tool called RefRef.DoS, which exploits SQL server vulnerabilities.
Derek Manky, Senior Security Strategist, Fortinet said, "Unlike the LOIC which requires multiple users to target a site with a constant bombardment of TCP and UDP packets, RefRef.DoS only requires a single attack. Once in place on a vulnerable target system, the software actually uses the system's processing power against itself until it ultimately crashes due to resource exhaustion."
FortiGuard released the IPS signature 'RefRef.DoS' to help mitigate this threat.
