Distributed network paralyzing (DNP) attack, a kind of distributed denial‐of‐service attack that utilize botnet to congest and paralyze autonomous system level network, is a serious threat to network security. In this article, it is indicated that the most difficulty of DNP attack is strategizing DNP attacking flows automatically from the perspective of the attacker. For this outstanding issue, we introduce the DNP attacking flows strategizing technology, which can help an attacker to launch DNP attack efficiently through a series of attacking resources division–target links and attacking paths orientation–flux planning process. Through simulation, we demonstrate that the feasibility of attacking flows strategizing technology and prove that an attacker who controls a large‐scale botnet can utilize DNP attack to seriously threat the network security. At last, from the perspective of the defender, it is indicated that the network security researcher should strengthen the relevant research to defend the DNP attack. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.