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Alerts

Configure notifications to receive real-time alerts (within ~1 minute) about L3/4 and L7 DDoS attacks on your Internet properties, depending on your plan and services. You can choose from different delivery methods.

Each notification email includes the following information:

Description
Detection and mitigation time of attack
Attack type
Maximum rate of attack
Attack target (zone, host, or IP address)
Rule that matched the attack (ID and description)
Rule override, if any

Cloudflare automatically sends weekly summaries of detected and mitigated DDoS attacks to Magic Transit and Spectrum BYOIP customers. Monthly application security reports are available for WAF/CDN customers. For more information, refer to DDoS reports.

Set up a notification for DDoS alerts

To set up a notification:

In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the Notifications page.
Go to Notifications ↗
Select Add.
Select one of the available DDoS alerts depending on your plan and services:
- HTTP DDoS Attack Alert
- Layer 3/4 DDoS Attack Alert
- Advanced HTTP DDoS Attack Alert
- Advanced Layer 3/4 DDoS Attack Alert
Enter a notification name and (optionally) a description.
Configure a delivery method for the notification. The available delivery methods depend on your Cloudflare plan. For more information, refer to Cloudflare Notifications.
If you are creating a notification for one of the advanced DDoS attack alerts, select Next and define the parameters that will filter the notifications you will receive.
Select Save.

Edit an existing notification

To edit, delete, or disable a notification, go to your account notifications ↗.

Alert types

Cloudflare can issue notifications for different types of DDoS attack alerts.

Standard alerts

HTTP DDoS Attack Alert

Who is it for?

WAF or CDN customers who want to receive a notification when Cloudflare has mitigated HTTP attacks that generate more than 100 requests per second.

Other options / filters

None.

Included with

All Cloudflare plans.

What should you do if you receive one?

No action needed. Refer to DDoS alerts for more information.

Layer 3/4 DDoS Attack Alert

Who is it for?

BYOIP and Spectrum customers with Network Analytics who want to receive a notification when Cloudflare has mitigated attacks that generate an average of at least 12,000 packets per second over a five-second period, with a duration of one minute or more.

Other options / filters

None.

Included with

Purchase of Magic Transit and/or BYOIP.

What should you do if you receive one?

No action needed. Refer to DDoS alerts for more information.

Advanced alerts

Advanced DDoS attack alerts support additional configuration, allowing you to filter the notifications you wish to receive.

Advanced HTTP DDoS Attack Alert

Who is it for?

WAF or CDN customers with the Advanced DDoS Protection subscription who want to receive a notification when Cloudflare has mitigated attacks that generate more than the configured number of requests per second (100 rps by default).

Other options / filters

You can choose when to trigger a notification.

Available filters include:

The zones in the account for which you wish to receive notifications.
The specific hostnames for which you wish to receive notifications.
The minimum requests-per-second rate that will trigger the alert (100 rps by default).

Included with

Enterprise plans with the Advanced DDoS Protection add-on.

What should you do if you receive one?

No action needed. Refer to DDoS alerts for more information.

Advanced Layer 3/4 DDoS Attack Alert

Who is it for?

BYOIP and Magic Transit customers with Network Analytics who want to receive a notification when Cloudflare has mitigated attacks that generate more than the configured number of packets per second (12,000 pps by default).

Other options / filters

You can choose when to trigger a notification.

Available filters include:

The IP prefixes for which you wish to receive notifications.
The specific IP addresses for which you wish to receive notifications.
The minimum packets-per-second rate that will trigger the alert (12,000 pps by default).
The minimum megabits-per-second rate that will trigger the alert.
The protocols for which you wish to receive notifications (all protocols by default).

If you specify multiple filters, Cloudflare applies an AND logic. This means the alert will only trigger if all filters you set are true. Keep this in mind when setting up this alert with more than one filter.

Included with

Purchase of Magic Transit and/or BYOIP (Enterprise plans).

What should you do if you receive one?

No action needed. Refer to DDoS alerts for more information.

You will also receive alerts for rules with a Log action, containing information on what triggered the alert.

Availability

The available alerts depend on your Cloudflare plan and subscribed services:

Alert type	WAF/CDN	Spectrum	Spectrum BYOIP	Magic Transit
HTTP DDoS Attack Alert	Yes	–	–	–
Advanced HTTP DDoS Attack Alert	Yes¹	–	–	–
Layer 3/4 DDoS Attack Alert	–	Yes^{2, 3}	Yes	Yes³
Advanced Layer 3/4 DDoS Attack Alert	–	–	Yes²	Yes²

¹ Only available to Enterprise customers with the Advanced DDoS Protection subscription.
² Only available on an Enterprise plan.
³ Refer to Final remarks for additional notes.

Example notification

The following image shows an example notification delivered via email:

To investigate a possibly ongoing attack, select View Dashboard. To go to the rule details in the Cloudflare dashboard, select View Rule.

Final remarks

Spectrum and Magic Transit customers using assigned Cloudflare IP addresses will receive layer 3/4 DDoS attack alerts where the attacked target is the Cloudflare IP or prefix. If you have brought your own IP (BYOIP) to Cloudflare Spectrum or Magic Transit, you will see your own IP addresses or prefixes as the attacked target.
In some cases, HTTP DDoS attack alerts will reference the attacked zone name instead of the attacked hostname. This occurs when the attack signature does not include information on the attacked hostname because it is not a strong indicator for identifying attack requests. For more information on attack signatures, refer to How DDoS protection works.
DDoS alerts are currently only available for DDoS attacks detected and mitigated by the DDoS managed rulesets. Alerts are not yet available for DDoS attacks detected and mitigated by the Advanced TCP Protection, the Advanced DNS Protection, or the Programmable Flow Protection system.
You will not receive duplicate DDoS alerts within the same one-hour time frame.
If you configure more than one alert type for the same kind of attack (for example, both an HTTP DDoS Attack Alert and an Advanced HTTP DDoS Attack Alert) you may get more than one notification when an attack occurs. To avoid receiving duplicate notifications, delete one of the configured alerts.