Threat actors may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users. Endpoint DoS can be performed by exhausting the system resources those services are hosted on or exploiting the system to cause a persistent crash condition. Example services include websites, email services, DNS, and web-based applications. Threat actors have been observed conducting DoS attacks for political purposes and to support other malicious activities, including distraction, hacktivism, and extortion.
This type of attack technique cannot be easily mitigated with preventive controls since it is based on the abuse of system features.