Keepalive Attack

Definitions

1. An attack that abuses connection keepalive behavior to tie up server resources by holding many sessions open cheaply for the attacker but expensively for the target. It is related to low-and-slow denial-of-service techniques that focus on exhausting connection slots rather than flooding bandwidth.

   In plain English: An attack that keeps many connections open to exhaust server resources.

   Example: "The reverse proxy was vulnerable to a keepalive attack because idle connection limits were far too generous."

Related Terms

• Flood Attack
• Gzip Bomb
• Low and Slow Attack
• Ping Flood
• Resource Exhaustion
• Client Pool
• Connection Handler
• Connection Limit