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Home / Glossary / RTBH
Glossary · Networking

RTBH

Remotely Triggered Black Hole

In plain language

A defence where a provider throws away all traffic aimed at one address so an attack does not swamp everything else.

The metaphor

Like closing the road to one address so a flood of traffic cannot jam the whole district.

Going deeper

How it works

  • It is used during large flooding attacks.
  • The attacked address becomes unreachable on purpose.
  • It protects the rest of the network.
  • It is run by internet providers and large hosting companies.
In practice
  • A hosting provider blocks the target of an attack.
  • A carrier offers it as part of attack protection.
  • A network team triggers it during an incident.

A question owners ask

Is it something I buy?

Not directly. It is handled by providers and large hosts. Ask yours how they respond to attacks.

Related terms
APAccess PointBPDUBridge Protocol Data UnitDHCPDynamic Host Configuration ProtocolDNATDestination Network Address TranslationDNSDomain Name SystemDomain nameDomain registrarDSLDigital Subscriber Line

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