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# Redirector Hell (Redirectors’ hell) - Websecurity (English translation)

**Пекло редиректорів (Redirectors’ hell) - Websecurity** - Author not stated, websecurity.com.ua.

- Title in English: Redirector Hell (Redirectors’ hell) - Websecurity
- Published: date not stated
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Redirector Hell (Redirectors’ hell) - Websecurity - Web Security

---

## [Redirector Hell (Redirectors’ hell)](http://websecurity.com.ua/2670/)

22:46 03.12.2008

As I wrote in [Classification of DoS Vulnerabilities in Web Applications](http://websecurity.com.ua/2662/), there is a type of DoS vulnerability called Looped DoS. This occurs when a web application redirects to itself, resulting in infinite redirection.

I will give an example of a similar DoS attack called Redirector Hell (Redirector’s hell), which I developed on 18.09.2008. This attack is the second variant of Looped DoS, in which a redirector does not redirect to itself, but two redirectors endlessly redirect to each other.

To demonstrate the attack, I chose the tinyurl.com and elfurl.com services.

DoS (Looped DoS):

The attack is bidirectional: http://tinyurl.com <-> http://elfurl.com. It places a load on the websites of both services.

http://tinyurl.com/very-fun-url
 http://elfurl.com/5vosm

By visiting either of these addresses, you will enter “redirector hell” ![:-)](http://websecurity.com.ua/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)—a process of infinite redirection.

This attack is possible because of the use of the Custom alias feature on tinyurl.com. This is an Abuse of Functionalty vulnerability on tinyurl.com that results in a Looped DoS attack.

Different clients behave differently: Mozilla automatically stops a looping redirect (and displays a Redirect Loop Error), while IE does not stop it. If the client accessing these services does not stop the redirect itself—for example, a search-engine bot—it will cause a heavy load on the servers.