Networking

DNS State Exhaustion: From TCP Slot Starvation to NXNS Amplification

TIME_WAIT and Sockstress don’t translate directly to UDP DNS, but DNS has its own state surface. Recursive-client tables, pending-query slots, TCP/853 (DoT) and TCP/443 (DoH) sockets, delegation chains, and DNSSEC validation state are all exhaustible. This post covers water torture, NXNS, TsuNAME, NRDelegation, and the operational defaults that make DNS a softer target than HTTP.

TCP Connection State Exhaustion: TIME_WAIT, Sockstress, and Why 4-Tuple Math Beats Port Counting

The ‘65536 port’ framing is wrong. TCP connection capacity is governed by 4-tuple uniqueness and kernel state tables, not port counts. This post breaks down TIME_WAIT exhaustion, Sockstress (window=0 + Persist Timer abuse), Slowloris-class L7 variants, and the conditions under which each is still effective today.

Defying Python: Building a Bare-Metal HTTP Server in x86_64 Assembly

Throw away python -m http.server. Discover how to build a bare-metal web server from scratch using x64 Assembly, featuring zero-copy file transfers and manual IP parsing.

Network Fingerprinting: Analyzing Default ICMP Structures and Payload Mimicry

A ‘ping’ is not just a ping. Every OS leaves a unique ICMP fingerprint. Discover how to use Traffic Mimicry and x64 Assembly to blend custom packets into ambient network noise.

Statistical Jitter and Timing Analysis: Precision Measurements in Network Protocols

Consistency is key in high-speed data. Beyond simple latency, jitter reveals the true health of a network. Discover how to bypass OS clock noise using RDTSC for nanosecond-scale precision.