Findings
Average Execution Time Elevated
Updated: July 4, 2025
Description
The average execution time has increased during the current observation period.
The average execution time of the API has significantly increased during a given period, exceeding the mean average plus one standard deviation of the preceding period. This suggests that the API is taking longer to process requests than usual, potentially leading to slower response times, degraded user experience, and increased resource consumption. An elevated execution time could be indicative of performance issues such as inefficient code, database bottlenecks, or issues with backend services.
Example Attack
An increase in execution time could also be indicative of an active attack, such as a Denial-of-Service (DoS) or Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack. Attackers may flood the API with a large volume of requests, overwhelming the server's resources and causing execution times to spike. Here's how such an attack could manifest:
- Denial-of-Service (DoS): An attacker might intentionally send malformed or resource-intensive requests to the API, forcing it to take longer to process each request. This could overwhelm the server and cause it to respond slowly or become unresponsive altogether.
- Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS): A DDoS attack could involve a botnet sending a large number of requests to the API from different IP addresses. The sheer volume of requests would strain the system, resulting in slower execution times. This could lead to service disruptions and degraded user experience.
Remediation
Investigate what has caused the execution times of this API to increase significantly in size.