Design and implementation of an automated RTBH mechanism on the Zabbix platform for DDoS mitigation

With the advancement of modern technology, the internet has evolved into a large-scale system that integrates various application services based on computing and networking resources. However, the connectivity of the global network brings not only transmission benefits but also security issues. Among various cybersecurity threats, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are particularly disruptive due to their overwhelming traffic volume, the difficulty in tracing their origin, and the growing diversity of attack scripts. These factors have made infrastructures to be vulnerable, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, which often face financial constraints in implementing robust defense mechanisms. Nevertheless, using network monitoring tools to identify such threats has become an essential approach for mitigation. Hence, to address above challenges, this research proposes an automated blackhole routing mechanism and implements it on the Zabbix platform. It aims to detect abnormal events and trigger mitigation actions according to the DDoS detection mechanisms configured by administrators. To evaluate the proposed method, a UDP Reflection Amplification (URA) detection module is deployed to identify DDoS attacks, along with an automated Remote Triggered Blackhole (RTBH) module to mitigate their impacts. The experiment results show that the implementation provides an essential solution for reducing the risks made by DDoS attack in the testing scenario.