DDoS Testing Service

Test Your DDoS Defenses
Before Attackers Do

Automated DDoS testing that simulates real L3-L7 attacks against your infrastructure. Discover exposed assets, validate protection effectiveness, and get actionable hardening recommendations.

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What Is DDoS Testing?

DDoS testing is a controlled security exercise that simulates Distributed Denial of Service attacks against your own infrastructure. The goal is to answer a critical question: if attackers target you right now, will your defenses hold?

Most organizations invest in DDoS protection - CDNs, WAFs, scrubbing services, rate limiting - but never validate whether these controls actually work under attack conditions. Configuration errors, origin IP leaks, missing rate limits, and unprotected subdomains create gaps that only surface during a real attack. By then, you are already down.

DDoS testing finds these gaps proactively. It reveals which of your assets are exposed, which protection layers have misconfigurations, and exactly how your infrastructure behaves under multi-vector attack pressure.

Why You Need DDoS Testing

Protection Doesn't Mean Protected

Having Cloudflare, Akamai, or Imperva in front of your site doesn't guarantee protection. Misconfigured WAF rules, exposed origin IPs, and unprotected subdomains are common even with premium DDoS providers.

DDoS Attacks Are Surging

DDoS attacks increased 358% in 2025. Application-layer (L7) attacks now make up the majority, bypassing traditional volumetric defenses. HTTP/2 rapid reset, slowloris, and API floods require active defense validation.

Compliance Requires It

DORA (EU financial sector), NIS2, PCI DSS 4.0, and SOC 2 all require demonstrable resilience testing. DDoS testing produces the evidence auditors need to confirm your controls are effective.

Downtime Is Expensive

The average cost of DDoS-induced downtime exceeds $22,000 per minute for mid-size enterprises. A single attack that takes down payment processing, APIs, or customer portals can cost more than a year of testing.

What DDactic Tests

Our platform covers the full DDoS attack surface, from network-layer volumetric floods to sophisticated application-layer exploits.

L3/L4 - Network Layer

  • SYN/ACK/RST floods
  • UDP amplification vectors
  • ICMP flood variants
  • IP fragmentation attacks
  • DNS amplification/reflection
  • NTP, SSDP, memcached amplification

L7 - Application Layer

  • HTTP/2 rapid reset (CVE-2023-44487)
  • Slowloris / slow POST
  • GET/POST floods
  • API endpoint abuse
  • WebSocket exhaustion
  • Cache-busting / CDN bypass

Infrastructure Discovery

  • Origin IP detection behind CDN
  • Subdomain enumeration
  • DNS record analysis
  • Certificate transparency mining
  • Cloud provider identification
  • Exposed admin/staging environments

Defense Analysis

  • WAF vendor identification
  • Rate limit threshold testing
  • Bot detection capability
  • Challenge page effectiveness
  • TLS fingerprint detection
  • Geographic blocking assessment

How DDoS Testing Works

Company name in, hardened infrastructure out. Our four-phase process takes days, not months.

  1. Attack Surface Discovery Enter your company name or primary domain. DDactic automatically discovers all exposed assets - subdomains, APIs, origin servers, cloud instances, DNS records - mapping your complete DDoS attack surface.
  2. Protection Analysis We identify what DDoS defenses are in place on each asset. CDN provider, WAF vendor, rate limit configuration, bot detection capabilities, challenge mechanisms. Every protection layer is fingerprinted.
  3. Controlled DDoS Simulation With your authorization, we execute multi-vector DDoS attacks against your infrastructure. Gradual escalation from reconnaissance probes to full L3-L7 attack campaigns. Real attack techniques, controlled conditions.
  4. Hardening Report You receive a detailed report: which defenses held, which failed, which assets are unprotected. Specific, prioritized hardening recommendations for each vulnerability found. Re-test to validate fixes.

DDoS Testing vs. Load Testing

They sound similar but test completely different things. Here's why both matter, but DDoS testing is what your security team needs.

Capability Load Testing DDoS Testing
Tests application performance Yes No
Tests security controls No Yes
Uses real attack techniques No Yes
Discovers exposed infrastructure No Yes
Validates WAF/CDN effectiveness No Yes
Multi-vector attack simulation No Yes
Meets DORA/NIS2 resilience requirements Partial Yes
Simulates legitimate user traffic Yes No

DDoS Testing FAQ

What is DDoS testing?
DDoS testing is the process of simulating Distributed Denial of Service attacks against your own infrastructure to evaluate how well your DDoS protection holds up under real attack conditions. It reveals gaps in CDN coverage, WAF configuration, rate limiting, and origin server exposure before an actual attacker finds them.
Is DDoS testing legal?
Yes, DDoS testing is legal when performed against your own infrastructure with proper authorization. DDactic requires a signed Authorization to Test agreement before any simulation begins. All tests are controlled, gradual, and designed to identify vulnerabilities without causing prolonged outages.
How is DDoS testing different from load testing?
Load testing measures application performance under expected traffic volumes using legitimate request patterns. DDoS testing simulates actual attack techniques - protocol exploits, amplification vectors, application-layer floods, slowloris, HTTP/2 rapid reset - to test whether your security controls detect and mitigate malicious traffic. Load testing answers "can my app handle the load?" while DDoS testing answers "can my defenses stop an attack?"
How often should you test DDoS protection?
At minimum, test after every infrastructure change - new CDN provider, WAF rule update, origin server migration, or DNS change. For organizations under compliance frameworks like DORA, NIS2, or PCI DSS, quarterly testing is recommended. Continuous testing catches configuration drift that silently degrades protection over time.
What does a DDoS test cost?
DDactic offers a free attack surface scan that discovers your exposed infrastructure and DDoS protection gaps. Full DDoS simulation testing with multi-vector attacks and detailed hardening reports starts at competitive rates based on your infrastructure size. Start with the free scan to see your attack surface.
Will DDoS testing take down my production systems?
DDactic uses controlled, gradual escalation. We start with non-intrusive reconnaissance and protection analysis. When we move to active simulation, attack intensity is increased incrementally with continuous monitoring. Tests can be stopped instantly if unexpected impact occurs. The discovery and analysis phases (which find most vulnerabilities) require zero attack traffic.
Do I need to install anything or share credentials?
No. DDactic operates entirely from the outside, the same way an attacker would. No agents, no credentials, no firewall changes. You provide your company name or domain, and we handle the rest. This black-box approach ensures we test what attackers actually see.
Which compliance frameworks require DDoS testing?
DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) requires financial entities to test ICT resilience including DDoS scenarios. NIS2 mandates cybersecurity risk assessments and incident response testing for essential services. PCI DSS 4.0 requires regular security testing of payment infrastructure. SOC 2 Type II requires evidence of ongoing security control effectiveness. DDactic reports map directly to these framework requirements.

See Your DDoS Attack Surface

Free scan discovers exposed assets, maps your DDoS protection, and identifies critical gaps. No signup, no credentials.

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Compare DDactic vs. MazeBolt · DDoS Testing for Compliance (DORA, NIS2) · Pricing