Weaponizing Middleboxes for TCP Reflected Amplification
> The second cause we found for infinite amplification was victim sustained loops. When a victim receives an unexpected TCP packet, the correct client response is to respond with a RST packet. We discovered a small number of amplifiers that will resend their block pages when they process any additional packet from the victim - including the RST. This creates an infinite packet storm: the attacker elicits a single block page to a victim, which causes a RST from the victim, which causes a new block page from the amplifier, which causes a RST from the victim, etc.<p>Wow. Just wow. “Rigorous QA” and “spec compliant” aren’t the first things to come to mind when I think of middlebox vendors, but this is just next level negligence.