Overview: What PutinStresser Is, and Why It Still Matters
PutinStresser refers to a DDoS-for-hire (“booter” or “stresser”) service brand that marketed on-demand attacks against websites, applications, game servers and networks. Like other booter platforms, it lowered the barrier to launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by providing a point-and-click dashboard, subscription plans, and crypto payments—no real skill required. Although specific domains associated with this brand have appeared and disappeared over time, the service model it represents remains a staple of the cybercrime economy: easily accessible DDoS capacity, frequently rebranded, and resilient to takedowns through domain churn and bulletproof hosting.
Background & Evolution (2018 to 2025)
Radware first profiled PutinStresser publicly in 2018, highlighting how booter services had matured into retail-like storefronts with customer support, discovery tools and multiple attack vectors. At the time, PutinStresser’s own FAQ claimed up to ~350 Gbps per “stress” using DNS amplification and ~600,000 packets per second for certain TCP floods—figures that illustrated the service’s marketing posture and the real-world threat of commodity DDoS for-hire.
Since then, global enforcement pressure against booter markets has intensified through recurring, multi-agency actions (often branded Operation PowerOFF) that seize domains, arrest operators and disrupt infrastructure. Campaigns in 2018, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 have taken down dozens of the most popular stresser sites and charged or arrested administrators across jurisdictions. Yet, as authorities and researchers note, many services reappear under new names and infrastructures, even if takedowns temporarily depress attack volumes and deter some buyers.
How Services Like PutinStresser Work
Business model
Booter sites mimic SaaS: tiered plans (by duration, bandwidth, or concurrent attacks), simple web UIs, crypto or online-payment options, and “support.” Buyers paste a target, choose a method, and launch. Abuse-enabling infrastructure includes leased or compromised botnets, misconfigured open resolvers for amplification/reflection, and proxy or “bulletproof” hosting to frustrate attribution. The net effect is on-demand DDoS capacity for tens of dollars, accessible to novices and opportunists.
Lowered barrier to entry
By abstracting away tooling and distribution, booters enable criminals, disgruntled users, and ideologically motivated actors to strike quickly and repeatedly, shifting costs to defenders who must maintain always-on resilience.
Attack Methods Historically Advertised by PutinStresser
While specific menus change, historical documentation shows PutinStresser marketed a broad, multivector catalog resembling today’s booter landscape:
- Amplification/Reflection (L3/4): DNS, NTP, and SNMP amplification; some services in that era also touted memcached reflection during its 2018 surge. These leverage misconfigured servers to magnify traffic toward a victim (see our primer on DNS flood attacks).
- Volumetric & Transport Floods (L3/4): UDP floods; TCP floods such as XSYN, XACK, or XMAS, intended to exhaust bandwidth, state tables or CPU.
- Application/Protocol-Specific (L7 or protocol-aware L4): TeamSpeak 3 (TS3), gaming/server protocols such as VSE, Minecraft, CS/Steam, SAMP, and others frequently targeted by booter clientele.
- GRE/Uncommon Vectors: Some menus advertised GRE floods aimed at network devices. Multivector campaigns like these map closely to the top DDoS attack types in 2025 and remain typical of commercial booter offerings.
Booter campaigns frequently exploit amplification vectors, with DNS remaining one of the most commonly abused protocols. In particular, DNS flood attacks are a favored method for overwhelming targets with large volumes of spoofed traffic, leveraging misconfigured or open DNS resolvers to amplify attack power. Understanding how these floods work — and why they’re so effective — is critical for implementing targeted defenses against booter and stresser campaigns.
Who Gets Targeted & What the Impact Looks Like
Victim profiles commonly include gaming platforms and communities, media/streaming, small-to-midsized online businesses, and civic or political sites - targets where disruption is highly visible or financially painful. Consequences range from availability and SLA breaches to lost revenue, reputational damage, and incident response costs. Importantly, edgy or geopolitical branding (e.g., “Putin…”) should not be conflated with state sponsorship; in booter markets, names are often marketing theater rather than reliable attribution.
Enforcement: What Has Changed Since 2018
Coordinated takedowns
Authorities have repeatedly seized large numbers of booter domains and charged operators as part of Operation PowerOFF and related actions. Examples include:
- Dec 2022 & May 2023: U.S. DOJ and partners seized 49 and then 13 domains, disrupting many of the highest-volume services.
- Dec 2024: Seizure of 27 booter platforms and criminal charges against operators across jurisdictions.
- May 2025: Another global wave: DOJ seized nine domains, Poland arrested four administrators behind multiple services.
Measured impact
Academic analysis of the 2022–2023 waves found material, but temporary drops in attack activity, with many services later returning under new branding. The deterrent effect appears strongest on casual buyers; persistent operators adapt with new domains and infrastructure.
Buyer risk
Law enforcement has consistently warned that purchasing or using booter services is illegal and that buyers can be identified and prosecuted.
Legal & Ethical Considerations
Using a stresser/booter against networks you do not own or have explicit permission to test is illegal in most jurisdictions and may result in criminal charges, forfeiture of domains/assets, and imprisonment. U.S. authorities (FBI/DOJ) explicitly classify DDoS-for-hire participation as a cybercrime, and international partners coordinate arrests, seizures, and extraditions.
Defensive Playbook: Practical Mitigations Against Booter-Style DDoS
Booter campaigns typically rotate vectors to chase the defender’s weak link. A multi-layered, automated posture — which includes anycast/CDN distribution, L3/L4 rate-based protections, cloud scrubbing, and Layer 7 defenses—remains the most effective strategy. For a compact set of defensive recommendations and configuration patterns, see Radware’s anti-DDoS guidance. Organizations should also harden exposed services against reflection vectors such as DNS flood attacks, which are still heavily abused by stresser services.
1. Build an Always-On Posture
Maintain always-on protection so mitigations trigger instantly across volumetric and protocol/application layers.
How Radware Helps: Inline network-edge protection with DefensePro X and hyperscale cloud scrubbing via Cloud DDoS Protection Service (always-on or on-demand). A hybrid design (DefensePro + Cloud DDoS) gives seamless, automated diversion and mitigation.
2. Harden the Easy Amplifiers
Close or restrict open resolvers and rate-limit services commonly abused for amplification/reflection (DNS, NTP, SNMP, memcached).
How Radware Helps: DefensePro applies behavioral, protocol-aware mitigation for reflection vectors; Cloud DDoS Protection Service absorbs large bursts at the edge of Radware’s cloud, while ERT Active Attackers threat feeds from Threat Intelligence Subscriptions pre-emptively block known malicious sources.
3. Layer 7 & Application Resilience
Mitigate HTTP/S floods, TS3 and other app- or protocol-aware floods with behavior-based controls, rate shaping and challenge flows.
How Radware Helps: Cloud WAF Service delivers intelligent L7 DDoS protections with app security; for extreme “tsunami” web floods, add Radware’s Web DDoS Protection to generate real-time, behavior-based signatures without blocking legitimate traffic.
4. Operations & Readiness
Maintain runbooks, practice tabletop exercises, and pre-stage escalation paths with ISPs, registrars and cloud providers.
How Radware Helps: Our 24×7 Emergency Response Team (ERT) provides expert assistance during complex multi-vector events, while Cloud Network Analytics (part of Cloud DDoS Service) gives deep traffic insights for faster classification and post-incident tuning.
5. Governance, Reporting & Continuous Improvement
Coordinate regulatory disclosures and post-attack analysis; feed lessons learned back into controls and thresholds.
How Radware Helps: Cloud DDoS Protection Service and DefensePro supply centralized telemetry for evidence and reporting, while Threat Intelligence Subscriptions keep protections current with ERT Active Attackers IP intelligence.
Case Studies & Real-World Examples
The coordinated law-enforcement takedown of 27 booter and stresser services in late 2024 under Operation PowerOFF illustrates the systemic reach of DDoS-for-hire platforms: these services advertised multi-gigabit attack capacities and facilitated tens of thousands of attacks against gaming platforms, ISPs and public-sector targets globally. In 2019, an operator of multiple illegal booter networks pleaded guilty after admitting to launching millions of DDoS attacks and disrupting over 109,000 hours of network accessibility.
While specific attribution to PutinStresser domains is limited in open sources, the public disclosure of takedowns and seizures underscores how platforms like PutinStresser (and the business model it represents) have powered real and repeated disruptions. This demonstrates that organizations lacking layered defenses remain highly vulnerable to booter-driven campaigns.
Future Outlook & Key Takeaways
The persistence of booter/stresser platforms—despite repeated takedowns—means organizations must treat DDoS-for-hire attacks as an enduring threat.
Key takeaways: adopt secure defaults, segment and monitor exposed services (especially gaming, media and public-facing infrastructure), and enforce a layered defense combining real-time edge detection, global scrubbing networks and operational readiness. Coordinate with your ISPs and cloud partners to pre-authorize diversion routes and regularly review your incident playbooks. Entities that integrate visibility, automation and threat-intelligence into their DDoS defense will be significantly better positioned to mitigate the evolving booter-service ecosystem.
To learn more about how Radware can safeguard your organization from DDoS-for-hire tools like PutinStresser and other types of DDoS attacks, contact us now.