Hacktivists Take Down Ubuntu's Public-Facing Infrastructure

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack has brought down Ubuntu's public-facing infrastructure, leaving users without access to critical services.

Hacktivists have claimed responsibility for the attack, which began on Thursday and has been ongoing for around 20 hours. According to reports, the attack affects Ubuntu's security API, as well as several Ubuntu and Canonical websites. Users are unable to update and install the operating system, with developers discussing the issue on an unofficial Ubuntu community forum.

The hacktivists, calling themselves The Islamic Cyber Resistance in Iraq 313 Team, claimed to be using Beamed, a DDoS-for-hire service. These services allow anyone to pay to launch DDoS attacks, even if they have no technical skills nor the necessary infrastructure to flood targets with bogus traffic.

Canonical, the company that develops and maintains Ubuntu, has acknowledged the attack on its website, stating that its web infrastructure is under a sustained, cross-border attack. The company has not responded to a request for comment.

This is not the first time authorities have played a game of whack-a-mole against DDoS-for-hire services. The FBI and Europol have taken down and seized domains, and sometimes arrested the people behind them.

• The attack has been ongoing for around 20 hours, affecting users' ability to update and install Ubuntu.
• The hacktivists claim to be using Beamed, a DDoS-for-hire service, to launch the attack.
• Canonical has acknowledged the attack on its website, stating that its web infrastructure is under a sustained, cross-border attack.

TechCrunch verified that updates failed to install on a test device running Ubuntu.

The DDoS attack has made it impossible for users to update and install Ubuntu, with developers discussing the issue on an unofficial Ubuntu community forum. The attack is believed to be a DDoS attack, which consists of flooding a target with junk traffic until it overloads or crashes.

Canonical did not respond to a request for comment. The company has not provided any further information on the attack or when services are expected to be restored.

• DDoS attacks are a crude but often effective way to bring down a target's infrastructure.
• Beamed, the DDoS-for-hire service used by the hacktivists, claims to power attacks in excess of 3.5 Tbps, which is about half of the bandwidth of a cyberattack that Cloudflare last year called the "largest DDoS attack ever recorded."