---
description: Understand automatic DDoS attack mitigation.
title: DDoS Protection
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png
---

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# DDoS Protection

Last updated Aug 31, 2026|Copy as Markdown| [View as Markdown](https://fec4cfc0.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/learning-paths/application-security/default-traffic-security/ddos/index.md)| [Agent setup](https://fec4cfc0.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

Cloudflare automatically detects and mitigates DDoS attacks using its [Autonomous Edge](https://fec4cfc0.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ddos-protection/about/components/#autonomous-edge), which is always-on. `Advanced` protections are reserved for Magic Transit customers.

| OSI Layer | Ruleset / Feature | Example of covered DDoS attack vectors |
| --- | --- | --- |
| L3/4 | [Network-layer DDoS Attack Protection](https://fec4cfc0.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ddos-protection/managed-rulesets/network/) | ACK floods<br>BitTorrent reflection attack<br>Carpet Bombing attacks<br>CHARGEN reflection attacks<br>DNS amplification attack<br>DNS Garbage Flood<br>DNS NXDOMAIN flood<br>DNS Query flood<br>DTLS amplification attacks<br>ESP flood<br>GRE floods<br>ICMP flood attack<br>Jenkins amplification attacks<br>Lantronix reflection attacks<br>mDNS DDoS attacks<br>Memcached amplification attacks<br>Mirai and Mirai-variant L3/4 attacks<br>MSSQL reflection attacks<br>NetBios DDoS attacks<br>Out of state TCP attacks<br>Protocol violation attacks<br>QUIC flood attack<br>Quote of the Day (QOTD) reflection attacks<br>RST flood<br>SIP attacks<br>SNMP flood attack<br>SPSS reflection attacks<br>SSDP reflection attacks<br>SYN floods<br>SYN-ACK reflection attack<br>TeamSpeak 3 floods<br>Ubiquity reflection attacks<br>UDP flood attack<br>VxWorks DDoS attacks<br><br>For more DNS protection options, refer to [Getting additional DNS protection](https://fec4cfc0.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ddos-protection/about/attack-coverage/#getting-additional-dns-protection). |
| L3/4 | [Advanced TCP Protection](https://fec4cfc0.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ddos-protection/advanced-ddos-systems/overview/advanced-tcp-protection/) <sup>[1](#user-content-fn-1)</sup> | Fully randomized and spoofed ACK floods, SYN floods, SYN-ACK reflection attacks, and other sophisticated TCP-based DDoS attacks |
| L7 (DNS) | [Advanced DNS Protection](https://fec4cfc0.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ddos-protection/advanced-ddos-systems/overview/advanced-dns-protection/) <sup>[1](#user-content-fn-1)</sup> | Sophisticated and fully randomized DNS attacks, including Water Torture attacks, Random-prefix attacks, and DNS laundering attacks. |
| L7 (HTTP/S) | [HTTP DDoS Attack Protection](https://fec4cfc0.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ddos-protection/managed-rulesets/http/) | Cache busting attacks<br>Carpet Bombing attacks<br>HTTP Continuation flood<br>HTTP flood attack<br>HTTP/2 MadeYouReset<br>HTTP/2 Rapid Reset<br>HULK attack<br>Known DDoS botnets<br>LOIC attack<br>Mirai and Mirai-variant HTTP attacks<br>Slowloris attack<br>TLS/SSL exhaustion attacks<br>TLS/SSL negotiation attacks<br>WordPress pingback attack<br> |

## Footnotes

1. Available to Magic Transit customers. [↩](#user-content-fnref-1) [↩<sup>2</sup>](#user-content-fnref-1-2)

Refer to the learning path [Prevent DDoS attacks](https://fec4cfc0.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/learning-paths/prevent-ddos-attacks/concepts/) to dive deeper into this subject.

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