What Happens When Your Arma 3 Server Is Attacked

An Arma 3 server with a running mission is a bad place for packet loss, so DDoS protection matters. Every VibeGAMES server, including yours, is behind VibeSHIELD, our own anycast protection network. This article covers what VibeSHIELD filters for Arma 3, what players notice during an attack, and where you can look it up afterwards.

1What VibeSHIELD Does for Your Arma 3 Server

• An Arma 3 filter protects the game port UDP 2302. It drops packets that do not look like real Arma 3 traffic.
• A BattlEye and RCON filter protects the BattlEye port 2306.
• An A2S query cache on the Steam query port 2303 answers server-list queries at the edge, so a query flood never reaches the server.
• The filters run at the VibeSHIELD point of presence closest to where the traffic comes from. Only clean traffic continues to your server.
• No configuration is needed. The profile is applied to every Arma 3 server automatically.

2What Players Notice

• In most cases nothing. The mission keeps running.
• During a very large attack players may see a few seconds of higher ping or packet loss while the filtering ramps up.
• If the server is unreachable, check the console in the game panel before you blame the attack. A missing mod, a crash, running out of memory or a wrong port are far more common causes.

3Where to See the Attack

• Log in to the website dashboard and open your Arma 3 server.
• Open the DDoS protection tab. It is part of the website dashboard at vibegames.com, not of the game panel at game.vibegames.com.
• Status reads Active. Attack status reads Not under attack or Under attack.
• The Attack history table lists attacks from the last 30 days with an ID, the peak size in Mbps or Gbps, and the start and stop time.
• Expand a row for a traffic chart over time, the source countries, source networks (ASN), source ports, destination ports, protocol, TTL and packet sizes.

4The Email You Receive

• When an attack targets your server's port, the email on your account receives a message with the subject DDoS attack detected on your server <ip>.
• The email says VibeSHIELD is filtering the traffic and that you do not need to do anything.
• Several servers on a node share one IP, each on its own port. The attack is attributed to your server by the port that was hit.

5What to Do

• Leave the mitigation to VibeSHIELD. There is nothing to switch on.
• Never share your server IP in response to a threat and never pay anyone who claims to stop attacks.
• Do not change the game port. It does not help against attacks and is not needed.
• Do not request a move to another location. All locations are protected in the same way.
• If players report problems while the server is listed as under attack, open a ticket and include the attack ID from the history table.

Good to Know

• BattlEye keeps working. The BattlEye port has its own filter, so RCON and BattlEye traffic are not affected by the attack.
• The breakdown helps support. Source countries, networks and ports in the expanded row give our team a quick picture if you do open a ticket.
• Read more. See how VibeSHIELD protects your game server for a general overview.