Attackers don't flood blindly

Before a serious DDoS attack begins, sophisticated adversaries do their homework. They map your origin IPs, probe how your CDN caches content, and look for rate limits they can slip past.

One finding matters more than any other: a direct path to your origin server. If attackers can reach the origin, your cloud WAF and CDN - however much you invested in them - are simply bypassed.

Blackbox DDoS Reconnaissance from Red Button shows you exactly what attackers would find, before they do.

What is Blackbox DDoS Reconnaissance?

Blackbox DDoS Reconnaissance is an outside-in assessment of your public-facing services, run by Red Button's DDoS experts. We start with zero internal knowledge and no network access - exactly like a real attacker.

Using the same reconnaissance techniques adversaries use, we map how your perimeter, caching and security layers would hold up against a DDoS campaign, and where they would not.

Key benefits

100% attacker view. We conduct the assessment strictly from the outside, replicating real adversary reconnaissance methods. You see your exposure the way an attacker sees it - not the way your architecture diagram says it should look.

Zero production risk. Our probes are passive and low-volume. They characterize your defensive posture without generating attack-level traffic, so site availability is never at risk.

Pinpointed exposure. We surface misconfigured DNS records, exposed origin IPs, caching flaws, and bypassable rate limits across all your public-facing FQDNs and critical paths.

Low effort, fast turnaround. The assessment requires minimal team involvement and is designed to deliver results quickly.

The three assessment pillars

Perimeter and security checks apply to every target; caching checks apply wherever a CDN is deployed.

What you receive

Every engagement ends with a full Blackbox Reconnaissance analysis and recommendations report. It includes:

• A summary of your exposure across each assessed target
• Findings for each pillar - perimeter, caching, and security
• Clear, prioritized recommendations to close each gap

The report is written by DDoS specialists, so findings are tied to how real DDoS attacks are built - not just to a generic checklist.

Two ways to use it

As a standalone assessment. Get a fast, low-risk view of your DDoS exposure without running any attack traffic. Ideal when you have just onboarded a new CDN or WAF, changed your architecture, or want an independent check of your current setup.

As the first step before a DDoS simulation. Recon shows you the weak points before you test. Your DDoS simulation can then focus on the attack vectors most likely to succeed, so every test hour delivers more insight. Gaps found during recon can be fixed first, then validated under real attack conditions in the simulation.

Why Red Button

• An attacker's point of view, from DDoS experts. DDoS testing and resilience is all we do.
• Built for production environments. We run DDoS testing on live production services under strict SLAs, and recon follows the same discipline.
• Low effort for your team. A lightweight engagement that needs no internal access and little of your team's time.
• Actionable output. A full analysis and recommendations report, not a raw scan dump.

Frequently asked questions

Will the assessment affect my live services? No. All probes are passive and low volume. No attack-level traffic is generated.

Do you need access to our network or internal documentation? No. The assessment is fully black-box we work only from what is publicly reachable, just as an attacker would.

What do you assess if we don't use a CDN? Caching checks apply only when a CDN is deployed. Perimeter and security checks apply to every target.

What do we need to provide? The list of public-facing domains (FQDNs) and critical paths you want assessed.

Can recon replace a DDoS simulation? No - they answer different questions. Recon shows what an attacker would find and target. A DDoS simulation shows how your defenses actually hold up under attack. Together they give you the full picture.

Ready to uncover your blind spots?

Find out what attackers can see before they use it against you. Talk to a Red Button DDoS expert to request a Blackbox DDoS Reconnaissance assessment, or to see how it fits into your DDoS testing program.