What is a Layer 7 attack and how can I detect it?

A Layer 7 attack is an attack specifically against the application level (the 7th layer of the OSI model). This can be in the form of invalid packets to confuse your application or filling up the sockets with valid, yet incomplete TCP connections so no other connections can be made. Layer 7 attacks are difficult to detect because they are, by design, made to look exactly like legitimate traffic.

A good method of detecting a Layer 7 attack is if your webserver and VPS are still online but you are receiving errors about your connection or resource limits. Unfortunately there is no specific tool or command to check for Layer 7 attacks so you'll need to get to know your specific application well enough to hopefully find and mitigate such attacks.

Since we are an unmanaged service and do not offer Layer 7 protection, this will fall under the client's responsibility and we will defer to our Knowledgebase articles for any tickets relating to them.
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