Doubts Surround Anonymous Operating System

Anonymous, better known for being a loosely-connected band of hacktivists, has ostensibly released its own operating system built on Ubuntu 11.10, yet some have raised doubts about the OS’s credibility.

Available for download on the SourceForge website, the OS uses the Mate desktop and comes with pre-installed software such as Tor, XChat IRC, Anonymous HOIC and SQL Poison.

An OS for hackers

A blog set up for the OS claimed it was created as an educational tool to test the security of websites. In a disclaimer it said: “The user has total responsibility for any illegal act.”

Due to the expansive nature of the Anonymous group, doubts were quickly raised by the community about the authenticity of the OS. The Hacker News cautioned those looking to use it by saying the OS could be “backdoored” by law enforcement officials or other hackers.

YourAnonNews, a prominent mouthpiece on Twitter, said: “Seeing lots of news about just-released purported ‘Anonymous OS’. BE CAREFUL! Remember the Zeus Trojan incident w/Slowloris recently!”

Others more bluntly claimed that it was “wrapped in Trojans”. The Anonymous-OS blog denied such accusations and said the system was 100 percent safe.

On the AnonSource forum, one user under the alias of ‘Dorchadas’ gave a preliminary review of the Anonymous-OS which, while not hugely complimentary to the operating system, did not highlight any malware issues. Dorchadas said the OS is easy-to-use but suggested it is designed for “people who are noobs to the pen-testing/hacking community”. The user adds that it would suit an average Anon member but not those used to using the Blackbuntu or Backtack Linux systems due to a lack of available tools.

Despite these drawbacks and security concerns, the operating system has already been downloaded more than 26,000 times from SourceForge.

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