Problems / Security, medium

Credential stuffing

Attackers replay leaked passwords against your login at 5,000 req/s. Every attempt hits the database.

Free to open. Runs in your browser, no sign-up.

Your goals

Success ≥ 98% for real users, block ≥ 95% of the attack.

The traffic

1,500 requests a second for 30 seconds: 90% reads, 10% writes.

The system

What each component does in this design, and what calls it. The simulator mimics each one from these settings.

ComponentIts job hereSettings
Load balancerLoad balancerTraffic enters here.Calls API.Layer 4 balancers route by IP and port; layer 7 balancers read HTTP and can route by path or header.–
APIApp serviceLoad balancer forwards to it.Calls Postgres.Little's law: throughput ≈ concurrency ÷ latency. 200 slots at 50 ms serve about 4,000 req/s.4 replicas × 200 slots · timeout 2.0 s
PostgresSQL databaseAPI calls it.Postgres runs one process per connection, which is why poolers like PgBouncer sit in front of busy databases.4 vCPU · 60 connections

Hints

Try it first. Open one hint at a time if you get stuck.

Hint 1

Each attempt costs a database query.

Hint 2

Stop them before they reach the API.

One way to solve it

Add a WAF and bot management in front (credential-stuffing rules).

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