Infrastructure Layer
Attacks

Memory Attack

The Memory Gremlin consumes a set amount of memory, or as much as is available (whichever is lower), and holds onto it for the duration of the attack. The Gremlin allocates blocks of memory with malloc until it reaches the desired amount, deallocating the memory with free upon attack completion.

Options

ParameterFlagRequiredDefaultVersionDescription
MB-m intFalse0.0.1The number of megabytes to allocate.
GB-g floatFalse0.50.0.1The number of gigabytes to allocate.
Percentage-p <0-100>False1002.8.30The percentage of total memory to allocate.
Length-l intFalse600.0.1The length of the attack (seconds).

Troubleshooting

When running a memory attack on Linux hosts or Kubernetes, the Gremlin process may be terminated by the system's Out of Memory Manager (OOMKiller). Please see this knowledge base article for additional information.