7 ms·

'Anonymous' hackers plan to shut down the Internet this Saturday

66 points by joering2 15y ago

GoodIntentions 15y ago
umm glwt? If anything, this will just damage them by exposing assets used in the attempt.
- mrjavinbur 15y ago
  "iNHERiT THE WiND" http://shar.es/pKNPa » » War Is Coming http://t.co/VCm7YhYW « « http://t.co/OPqv8fJL 0BAMA http://shar.es/p4LGF iN http://shar.es/pAqkt 2012 http://shar.es/pAtV0 http://shar.es/pxBWN » » War Is Coming http://t.co/VCm7YhYW « « http://t.co/ZwHXlaaO http://shar.es/pZy4T http://shar.es/pxEyV 0BAMA http://shar.es/p6x4y iN http://abcn.ws/GIuQWr 2012 http://shar.es/plVmN http://t.co/OPqv8fJL GOT DAMN RiTE http://shar.es/p5huu WE’RE GONNA FiTE http://shar.es/ppZel DO ABSOLUTELY http://shar.es/p4T1u NOTHiNG COMMUNiST http://shar.es/p0Kkk REPUBLiCANS http://shar.es/ppZel ALL HAVE COMMiTTED POLiTiCAL SUiCiDE4 2012 http://t.co/Yuvzvx6D THE UNRE-ELECTABLE http://shar.es/pwWns SUPER LAZY PATHETiC http://t.co/mzi3Gx5D WHiNiNGASS LOSER http://t.co/AOPk9SoZ CRYBABY & DEMON JOHN http://shar.es/p18pW BOEHNER & THE UN-MOTiVATED UNRE-ELECTABLE http://shar.es/pwWns WELL KNOWN SUPER DASTARDLY WEAKMiNDED http://shar.es/pAhE2 SORRYASS LOSER QUiTTER http://shar.es/p4LGF & DEMON ERiC http://shar.es/p18B0 CANTOR & THE OLD DUMBASS iTS DEFiNiTELY TiME 2RETiRE DEMON & LOSER MiTCH http://t.co/WL3eJoDN McCONNELL http://goo.gl/Oi4S8 “iNHERiT THE WiND” http://goo.gl/Oi4S8 YOU ARE MOST DEFiNiTELY GOiNG 2BOW DOWN – BELiEVE –YOUR OBSTRUCTiONiSM http://t.co/5jJkRAZt & DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHiNG FiNAL DAYS http://shar.es/pwWns ARE MOST ASSUREDLY NUMBERED http://t.co/YJfrxCHK & FAST APPROACHiNG http://shar.es/pix3l iT iS PERMANENTLY ENGRAVED iN STONE – DAMN RiTE – OBAMA A MAN 0F ALL THE PEOPLE iN 2012 - GOT DAMN RiTE http://t.co/hmJ9Outt WE’RE GONNA FiTE http://t.co/9LFKSxHH http://shar.es/p4ESZ http://shar.es/p4LGF » » GEORGE http://shar.es/pCRT6 http://shar.es/plVmN ZIMMERMAN « « http://t.co/rBUXhrB5 1950 RETREAT VIEW CIRCLE http://t.co/VCm7YhYW SANFORD, FL 32771 (407) 878-6007 His Lawyer # (407) 260-6853 » » http://t.co/VCm7YhYW War Is Coming « « http://t.co/HTnI0zjB http://shar.es/pJGL0 http://shar.es/pwWns http://shar.es/pxEyV http://shar.es/pxBWN http://t.co/OPqv8fJL http://shar.es/pAqkt http://shar.es/pAtV0 http://shar.es/pAhE2 http://shar.es/pi7ay « «
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
gzmask 15y ago
good that they rise the attention of the need of a pure peer-to-peer address/naming routing system that is not controlled by one centralized organization
mrjavinbur 15y ago
"iNHERiT THE WiND" http://shar.es/pKNPa » » War Is Coming http://t.co/VCm7YhYW « « http://t.co/OPqv8fJL 0BAMA http://shar.es/p4LGF iN http://shar.es/pAqkt 2012 http://shar.es/pAtV0 http://shar.es/pxBWN » » War Is Coming http://t.co/VCm7YhYW « « http://t.co/ZwHXlaaO http://shar.es/pZy4T http://shar.es/pxEyV 0BAMA http://shar.es/p6x4y iN http://abcn.ws/GIuQWr 2012 http://shar.es/plVmN http://t.co/OPqv8fJL GOT DAMN RiTE http://shar.es/p5huu WE’RE GONNA FiTE http://shar.es/ppZel DO ABSOLUTELY http://shar.es/p4T1u NOTHiNG COMMUNiST http://shar.es/p0Kkk REPUBLiCANS http://shar.es/ppZel ALL HAVE COMMiTTED POLiTiCAL SUiCiDE4 2012 http://t.co/Yuvzvx6D THE UNRE-ELECTABLE http://shar.es/pwWns SUPER LAZY PATHETiC http://t.co/mzi3Gx5D WHiNiNGASS LOSER http://t.co/AOPk9SoZ CRYBABY & DEMON JOHN http://shar.es/p18pW BOEHNER & THE UN-MOTiVATED UNRE-ELECTABLE http://shar.es/pwWns WELL KNOWN SUPER DASTARDLY WEAKMiNDED http://shar.es/pAhE2 SORRYASS LOSER QUiTTER http://shar.es/p4LGF & DEMON ERiC http://shar.es/p18B0 CANTOR & THE OLD DUMBASS iTS DEFiNiTELY TiME 2RETiRE DEMON & LOSER MiTCH http://t.co/WL3eJoDN McCONNELL http://goo.gl/Oi4S8 “iNHERiT THE WiND” http://goo.gl/Oi4S8 YOU ARE MOST DEFiNiTELY GOiNG 2BOW DOWN – BELiEVE –YOUR OBSTRUCTiONiSM http://t.co/5jJkRAZt & DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHiNG FiNAL DAYS http://shar.es/pwWns ARE MOST ASSUREDLY NUMBERED http://t.co/YJfrxCHK & FAST APPROACHiNG http://shar.es/pix3l iT iS PERMANENTLY ENGRAVED iN STONE – DAMN RiTE – OBAMA A MAN 0F ALL THE PEOPLE iN 2012 - GOT DAMN RiTE http://t.co/hmJ9Outt WE’RE GONNA FiTE http://t.co/9LFKSxHH http://shar.es/p4ESZ http://shar.es/p4LGF » » GEORGE http://shar.es/pCRT6 http://shar.es/plVmN ZIMMERMAN « « http://t.co/rBUXhrB5 1950 RETREAT VIEW CIRCLE http://t.co/VCm7YhYW SANFORD, FL 32771 (407) 878-6007 His Lawyer # (407) 260-6853 » » http://t.co/VCm7YhYW War Is Coming « « http://t.co/HTnI0zjB http://shar.es/pJGL0 http://shar.es/pwWns http://shar.es/pxEyV http://shar.es/pxBWN http://t.co/OPqv8fJL http://shar.es/pAqkt http://shar.es/pAtV0 http://shar.es/pAhE2 http://shar.es/pi7ay « «
canthonytucci 15y ago
Steve gibson discussed this a while back on the Security Now! podcast, his conclusion was that it wasn't likely. http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-341.pdf http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-341.pdf Transcript and links to audio. If my memory serves, he also noted that there also some uncertainty if this was even an "official" anonymous action...whatever that might mean.
mathieud 15y ago
Whoo ... They're good, they should do stand-up...
jasongullickson 15y ago
Sounds like a good day to go fishing.
wtvanhest 15y ago
I wish they would choose Friday. I could use a day to take a break.
- stevenspasbo 15y ago
  and if nothing else it makes a great excuse for sys/network admins. "I can't get online!" "Yeah anonymous took down the internet"
  - JonnieCache 15y ago
    Perhaps it's not an fbi conspiracy, it's the secret brotherhood of BIND admins who just really want a day off.
nextstep 15y ago
Either this is a hoax or the unrealistic claim of a sad group of hackers. Regardless, it's still interesting to imagine what it would be like if the internet really were inaccessible to a large number of people. Even light Internet users would realize how dependent we have all become on this infrastructure.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  Pretty sure someone just uploaded a video to YouTube with a title along the lines of, "Message to The World". IIRC, the "operation" was disavowed by all of the twitter accounts associated with the more 'mainstream' anons.
shenberg 15y ago
Why attack DNS? BGP is more vulnerable and receives less scrutiny (remember Pakistan bringing youtube down for the entire world via a misconfigured censorship attempt?). Go look at the references from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_hijacking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_hijacking for some horror stories.
- getsat 15y ago
  L0pht testified before Congress claiming that they could shut down the Internet globally in 30 minutes back in 1998. If I recall correctly, it was through attacks against BGP/BGMP. I can't find a non-broken source link, though.
  - aw3c2 15y ago
    Should be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVJldn_MmMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVJldn_MmMY
    - getsat 15y ago
      Awesome! Thanks for this link.
    - ljd 15y ago
      The intro where they used their hacker names made it worth it.
- almost_usual 15y ago
  You could at least attack some of the major ASes. http://www.routeviews.org/ http://www.routeviews.org/
- eridius 15y ago
  I thought the vulnerability that Pakistan unwittingly exploited was already fixed?
CrownStem 15y ago
I cannot think of a better way for this group to hurt their cause and garner the animosity of much of the world. It seems to endlessly repeat throughout history- groups with an axe to grind (whether in power or rebelling against it) use blunt force to try and further their cause. They're either too lazy or not competent enough to use a scalpel so they blow up the patient to get rid of a tumor. After the majority of the populace then turns against them, they're either shocked or self-righteously indignant that everyone else doesn't "get it". It never ends.
- espeed 15y ago
  Or it's an opposing group using its name to discredit it.
  - CrownStem 15y ago
    That could be true, but I believe it to be unlikely in this case. It's easier to benefit from a false-flag attack by just doing it- denials don't carry as much weight in an emotional, post-attack context. When forewarning is given for a false-flag, you give the accused a chance to back away and say "it's not us" before an event, lodging enough doubt that the size of the crowd with torches and pitchforks isn't as big afterwards... I think this would be counter-productive for the guys staging the false-flag attack.
    - CrownStem 15y ago
      Looking at your idea from a different angle: I guess it could be useful for an opposing group to make the threat, in order to make Anonymous look impotent if it's not carried out, while the opposing group takes credit for "stopping" it. Who knows... -We- surely don't. I feel like I'm outlining a plot for a Tom Clancy novel.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
bdunbar 15y ago
Excellent: I need an excuse to clean out the garage.
duxup 15y ago
I guess I'll work from home then...
nextparadigms 15y ago
At this point I think it's just FBI/CIA trying to troll us and get more cyber-laws passed.
- marcamillion 15y ago
  As cynical as this point sounds, you may be on to something. We know that the FBI infiltrated LulzSec...so who knows if this may be something they are doing.
  - rbanffy 15y ago
    As godwinesque as this may sound, this wouldn't be the first time group A does something bad just to be able to blame group B in order to receive the powers it craves.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
- droithomme 15y ago
  Arg! I hate to say this but "I came here to post this." This is not the sort of thing Anonymous does, they've been careful not to aggravate the public and make clear it is the elite and not the common man that is their nemesis. We also know for a fact that US intelligence agencies have infiltrated and have been in control of many Anonymous operations. Not too hard to see that this will be a test run of whether intelligence agencies can shut down the internet.
  - wlesieutre 15y ago
    If you hated to say it, couldn't you have left it out or just said "I agree" instead? The rest of your post doesn't depend on us knowing what you came here to say.
    - droithomme 15y ago
      Sure I think you are right. I sometimes maintain a conversational tone here, so expressing personal surprise at seeing what I was going to type as the top comment just sort of came out. I "hated to say it" because it's such an overused trite idiom. But yeah, it added little and "I agree" would have been a smoother intro.
adrianwaj 15y ago
They should go more negative and turn off the sun or more positive and build a new internet that day.
knieveltech 15y ago
Has anyone besides RTM ever successfully dropped the majority of the network?
- tomjen3 15y ago
  The name escapes me for the moment, but there was a famous computer virus which I believe did almost to do that. They key wasn't that it was particularly clever and the attack vector it used had been patched by MS months before. The key was that the attack happened over UDP which meant that there was no handshake, no congestion control, no need to worry about dropped packets, etc. The only limitation was the bandwidth of the infected host -- the virus itself was less than 500 bytes (not kilo, just straight bytes) so a single host could infect tens of millions of computers. It was a pretty fascination piece of malware.
  - Diederich 15y ago
    Code Red http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Red_(computer_worm) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Red_(computer_worm) did a lot of damage, but I believe it was an attack on IIS, therefor TCP based.
    - tomjen3 15y ago
      It wasn't code Red. It was latter and attacked a database discovery service for MSSQL.
      - davux 15y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Slammer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Slammer
  - minimax 15y ago
    You're talking about SQL Slammer. The whole virus fit in a single UDP packet. Wired had a pretty good (if slightly sensational) writeup at the time: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/slammer.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/slammer.html
juxta 15y ago
Maybe it's a pre-april fools prank (as in it's probably not going to happen but the extra hype will be the prank)! No one would take it seriously (even more seriously) if this fell on sunday.
tzs 15y ago
I'd love to see a few prominent sites (Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, and so on) get together secretly and agree to have, say, a 10 minute outage at the same time during this--just to see what these "hackers" do if they think for a bit they actually succeeded.
philip1209 15y ago
How much redundancy is built into the GMail nameservers? That worries me more than http requests. Also, should I host my own nameservers and assume I'll fly under the radar of attacks?
- astrodust 15y ago
  This is allegedly targeted at the root servers. It doesn't matter what DNS provider you use if your TLD is offline.
  - sneak 15y ago
    Delegations from the root to the TLDs and from the TLDs to second-level domains generally have TTLs of over 24 hours. This attack will have zero effect.
    - philip1209 15y ago
      Good point. They'll bring it down for a day and nothing will happen. Is it likely that the big email providers keep the caching longer and could maintain some functionality in the event the TLD nameservers are down for more than 24 hours?
aw3c2 15y ago
Unless they keep their attack up / the DNS root down long enough to make cache timeout, this should not be noticed by any "normal" people.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- hornbaker 15y ago
  With google.com and many other big players having a TTL of 300s, that's not a long time.
  - sneak 15y ago
    They are not planning to attack Google's name servers, just the root servers that hold the delegations for the TLDs. The .com delegation is set to cache for 48 hours, for example. This simply will not work at all.
- Dylan16807 15y ago
  I don't understand why people say this. At any given minute, aren't 1/n caches about to expire? So a few people will be hit immediately, and the number will grow from there.
inchcombec 15y ago
I really hate the fact that this nonsense keeps getting reported. Even the article itself, while it has the headline "'Anonymous' hackers plan to shut down the Internet this Saturday", states that "there is really no need to fear". Better title: 'A few individuals make crazy claims of doing something impossible.'. Not only would it be basically impossible to take down the DNS servers even if they had large participation, but there will be essentially no participation since most main 'anonymous' sites/leaders are telling people to have nothing to do with it. This is just nonsense intended to drive up hit counts. I really don't think a person needs to be very technical to realize this is nonsense. Most people aren't rocket scientists, but would have the sense to call bullshit pretty quickly if I claimed I was going to test a working warp drive on Friday. I've never understand why computers seem so complicated and strange to people that the same common sense and critical thinking that makes it obvious I don't really have a warp drive don't seem to apply.
- cmfoster 15y ago
  You can read http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2002/07/54040?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2002/07/54040?... While it is unlikely that this will actually happen you are still far from correct saying that this is virtually impossible, for certain this is possible. If anyone here recalls the blackhat heydays pre-2003 you may have/have not recalled a group known as "Fluffy Bunny" that broke into (at the time) what were thought to be the some of the most secure box's on the net, a few to name were VA software, UU.net(efnet), (cross site scripting) securityfocus.com, sans.org, (even a site dedicated to making fun of and host mirrors of defaced websites) attrition.org. Getting back to the original point I was trying to make, one of their most notable hacks was breaking into multiple Akamai servers. No remote exploits were used against Akamai servers, every computer they had access to at Akamai was gained through a patch version of ssh which recorded all users password before encryption and placed it in a log file within a hidden directory on the system, this patch was installed on every box they exploited, they got lucky when a user from the uu.net box logged into an Akamai box using the compromised ssh client. So they have Akamai, now what? The group further infiltrated their way into Akamai's intranet and gained access to other computers on their network through social engineering. Finally they located the development server that stored the source code that Akamai used to update some 12,000+ high bandwidth servers they used. The plan was to patch the update software they used to automate the patching process to also include a rootkit&DDoS client. With this they would be able to control a ridiculously large botnet, joined with their already amassed 4000+ DDoS net from other compromised computers this would have effectively timed out all 13 top level root name servers. More then likely you can tell what happens after that. If you were interested to know, these guys were caught out out of the stupidity of this guy. http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/22/local/me-24959 http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/22/local/me-24959 Whom was drunk and instead of hanging up decided to curse out a field technician that came onto the centrex line(thanks AT&T) they used to communicate through. This resulted in the tech recording the line 24/7 and eventually handing the information over to the authorities.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

66 points by joering2 15y ago

GoodIntentions 15y ago

umm glwt? If anything, this will just damage them by exposing assets used in the attempt.

mrjavinbur 15y ago
"iNHERiT THE WiND" http://shar.es/pKNPa » » War Is Coming http://t.co/VCm7YhYW « « http://t.co/OPqv8fJL 0BAMA http://shar.es/p4LGF iN http://shar.es/pAqkt 2012 http://shar.es/pAtV0 http://shar.es/pxBWN » » War Is Coming http://t.co/VCm7YhYW « « http://t.co/ZwHXlaaO http://shar.es/pZy4T http://shar.es/pxEyV 0BAMA http://shar.es/p6x4y iN http://abcn.ws/GIuQWr 2012 http://shar.es/plVmN http://t.co/OPqv8fJL GOT DAMN RiTE http://shar.es/p5huu WE’RE GONNA FiTE http://shar.es/ppZel DO ABSOLUTELY http://shar.es/p4T1u NOTHiNG COMMUNiST http://shar.es/p0Kkk REPUBLiCANS http://shar.es/ppZel ALL HAVE COMMiTTED POLiTiCAL SUiCiDE4 2012 http://t.co/Yuvzvx6D THE UNRE-ELECTABLE http://shar.es/pwWns SUPER LAZY PATHETiC http://t.co/mzi3Gx5D WHiNiNGASS LOSER http://t.co/AOPk9SoZ CRYBABY & DEMON JOHN http://shar.es/p18pW BOEHNER & THE UN-MOTiVATED UNRE-ELECTABLE http://shar.es/pwWns WELL KNOWN SUPER DASTARDLY WEAKMiNDED http://shar.es/pAhE2 SORRYASS LOSER QUiTTER http://shar.es/p4LGF & DEMON ERiC http://shar.es/p18B0 CANTOR & THE OLD DUMBASS iTS DEFiNiTELY TiME 2RETiRE DEMON & LOSER MiTCH http://t.co/WL3eJoDN McCONNELL http://goo.gl/Oi4S8 “iNHERiT THE WiND” http://goo.gl/Oi4S8 YOU ARE MOST DEFiNiTELY GOiNG 2BOW DOWN – BELiEVE –YOUR OBSTRUCTiONiSM http://t.co/5jJkRAZt & DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHiNG FiNAL DAYS http://shar.es/pwWns ARE MOST ASSUREDLY NUMBERED http://t.co/YJfrxCHK & FAST APPROACHiNG http://shar.es/pix3l iT iS PERMANENTLY ENGRAVED iN STONE – DAMN RiTE – OBAMA A MAN 0F ALL THE PEOPLE iN 2012 - GOT DAMN RiTE http://t.co/hmJ9Outt WE’RE GONNA FiTE http://t.co/9LFKSxHH http://shar.es/p4ESZ http://shar.es/p4LGF » » GEORGE http://shar.es/pCRT6 http://shar.es/plVmN ZIMMERMAN « « http://t.co/rBUXhrB5 1950 RETREAT VIEW CIRCLE http://t.co/VCm7YhYW SANFORD, FL 32771 (407) 878-6007 His Lawyer # (407) 260-6853 » » http://t.co/VCm7YhYW War Is Coming « « http://t.co/HTnI0zjB http://shar.es/pJGL0 http://shar.es/pwWns http://shar.es/pxEyV http://shar.es/pxBWN http://t.co/OPqv8fJL http://shar.es/pAqkt http://shar.es/pAtV0 http://shar.es/pAhE2 http://shar.es/pi7ay « «

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

gzmask 15y ago

good that they rise the attention of the need of a pure peer-to-peer address/naming routing system that is not controlled by one centralized organization

mrjavinbur 15y ago

"iNHERiT THE WiND" http://shar.es/pKNPa » » War Is Coming http://t.co/VCm7YhYW « « http://t.co/OPqv8fJL 0BAMA http://shar.es/p4LGF iN http://shar.es/pAqkt 2012 http://shar.es/pAtV0 http://shar.es/pxBWN » » War Is Coming http://t.co/VCm7YhYW « « http://t.co/ZwHXlaaO http://shar.es/pZy4T http://shar.es/pxEyV 0BAMA http://shar.es/p6x4y iN http://abcn.ws/GIuQWr 2012 http://shar.es/plVmN http://t.co/OPqv8fJL GOT DAMN RiTE http://shar.es/p5huu WE’RE GONNA FiTE http://shar.es/ppZel DO ABSOLUTELY http://shar.es/p4T1u NOTHiNG COMMUNiST http://shar.es/p0Kkk REPUBLiCANS http://shar.es/ppZel ALL HAVE COMMiTTED POLiTiCAL SUiCiDE4 2012 http://t.co/Yuvzvx6D THE UNRE-ELECTABLE http://shar.es/pwWns SUPER LAZY PATHETiC http://t.co/mzi3Gx5D WHiNiNGASS LOSER http://t.co/AOPk9SoZ CRYBABY & DEMON JOHN http://shar.es/p18pW BOEHNER & THE UN-MOTiVATED UNRE-ELECTABLE http://shar.es/pwWns WELL KNOWN SUPER DASTARDLY WEAKMiNDED http://shar.es/pAhE2 SORRYASS LOSER QUiTTER http://shar.es/p4LGF & DEMON ERiC http://shar.es/p18B0 CANTOR & THE OLD DUMBASS iTS DEFiNiTELY TiME 2RETiRE DEMON & LOSER MiTCH http://t.co/WL3eJoDN McCONNELL http://goo.gl/Oi4S8 “iNHERiT THE WiND” http://goo.gl/Oi4S8 YOU ARE MOST DEFiNiTELY GOiNG 2BOW DOWN – BELiEVE –YOUR OBSTRUCTiONiSM http://t.co/5jJkRAZt & DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHiNG FiNAL DAYS http://shar.es/pwWns ARE MOST ASSUREDLY NUMBERED http://t.co/YJfrxCHK & FAST APPROACHiNG http://shar.es/pix3l iT iS PERMANENTLY ENGRAVED iN STONE – DAMN RiTE – OBAMA A MAN 0F ALL THE PEOPLE iN 2012 - GOT DAMN RiTE http://t.co/hmJ9Outt WE’RE GONNA FiTE http://t.co/9LFKSxHH http://shar.es/p4ESZ http://shar.es/p4LGF » » GEORGE http://shar.es/pCRT6 http://shar.es/plVmN ZIMMERMAN « « http://t.co/rBUXhrB5 1950 RETREAT VIEW CIRCLE http://t.co/VCm7YhYW SANFORD, FL 32771 (407) 878-6007 His Lawyer # (407) 260-6853 » » http://t.co/VCm7YhYW War Is Coming « « http://t.co/HTnI0zjB http://shar.es/pJGL0 http://shar.es/pwWns http://shar.es/pxEyV http://shar.es/pxBWN http://t.co/OPqv8fJL http://shar.es/pAqkt http://shar.es/pAtV0 http://shar.es/pAhE2 http://shar.es/pi7ay « «

canthonytucci 15y ago

Steve gibson discussed this a while back on the Security Now! podcast, his conclusion was that it wasn't likely. http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-341.pdf http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-341.pdf Transcript and links to audio. If my memory serves, he also noted that there also some uncertainty if this was even an "official" anonymous action...whatever that might mean.

mathieud 15y ago

Whoo ... They're good, they should do stand-up...

jasongullickson 15y ago

Sounds like a good day to go fishing.

wtvanhest 15y ago

I wish they would choose Friday. I could use a day to take a break.

stevenspasbo 15y ago
and if nothing else it makes a great excuse for sys/network admins. "I can't get online!" "Yeah anonymous took down the internet"
- JonnieCache 15y ago
  Perhaps it's not an fbi conspiracy, it's the secret brotherhood of BIND admins who just really want a day off.

nextstep 15y ago

Either this is a hoax or the unrealistic claim of a sad group of hackers. Regardless, it's still interesting to imagine what it would be like if the internet really were inaccessible to a large number of people. Even light Internet users would realize how dependent we have all become on this infrastructure.

redthrowaway 15y ago
Pretty sure someone just uploaded a video to YouTube with a title along the lines of, "Message to The World". IIRC, the "operation" was disavowed by all of the twitter accounts associated with the more 'mainstream' anons.

shenberg 15y ago

Why attack DNS? BGP is more vulnerable and receives less scrutiny (remember Pakistan bringing youtube down for the entire world via a misconfigured censorship attempt?). Go look at the references from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_hijacking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_hijacking for some horror stories.

getsat 15y ago
L0pht testified before Congress claiming that they could shut down the Internet globally in 30 minutes back in 1998. If I recall correctly, it was through attacks against BGP/BGMP. I can't find a non-broken source link, though.
- aw3c2 15y ago
  Should be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVJldn_MmMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVJldn_MmMY
  - getsat 15y ago
    Awesome! Thanks for this link.
  - ljd 15y ago
    The intro where they used their hacker names made it worth it.
almost_usual 15y ago
You could at least attack some of the major ASes. http://www.routeviews.org/ http://www.routeviews.org/
eridius 15y ago
I thought the vulnerability that Pakistan unwittingly exploited was already fixed?

CrownStem 15y ago

I cannot think of a better way for this group to hurt their cause and garner the animosity of much of the world. It seems to endlessly repeat throughout history- groups with an axe to grind (whether in power or rebelling against it) use blunt force to try and further their cause. They're either too lazy or not competent enough to use a scalpel so they blow up the patient to get rid of a tumor. After the majority of the populace then turns against them, they're either shocked or self-righteously indignant that everyone else doesn't "get it". It never ends.

espeed 15y ago
Or it's an opposing group using its name to discredit it.
- CrownStem 15y ago
  That could be true, but I believe it to be unlikely in this case. It's easier to benefit from a false-flag attack by just doing it- denials don't carry as much weight in an emotional, post-attack context. When forewarning is given for a false-flag, you give the accused a chance to back away and say "it's not us" before an event, lodging enough doubt that the size of the crowd with torches and pitchforks isn't as big afterwards... I think this would be counter-productive for the guys staging the false-flag attack.
  - CrownStem 15y ago
    Looking at your idea from a different angle: I guess it could be useful for an opposing group to make the threat, in order to make Anonymous look impotent if it's not carried out, while the opposing group takes credit for "stopping" it. Who knows... -We- surely don't. I feel like I'm outlining a plot for a Tom Clancy novel.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

bdunbar 15y ago

Excellent: I need an excuse to clean out the garage.

duxup 15y ago

I guess I'll work from home then...

nextparadigms 15y ago

At this point I think it's just FBI/CIA trying to troll us and get more cyber-laws passed.

marcamillion 15y ago
As cynical as this point sounds, you may be on to something. We know that the FBI infiltrated LulzSec...so who knows if this may be something they are doing.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  As godwinesque as this may sound, this wouldn't be the first time group A does something bad just to be able to blame group B in order to receive the powers it craves.
  - deleted 15y ago
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droithomme 15y ago
Arg! I hate to say this but "I came here to post this." This is not the sort of thing Anonymous does, they've been careful not to aggravate the public and make clear it is the elite and not the common man that is their nemesis. We also know for a fact that US intelligence agencies have infiltrated and have been in control of many Anonymous operations. Not too hard to see that this will be a test run of whether intelligence agencies can shut down the internet.
- wlesieutre 15y ago
  If you hated to say it, couldn't you have left it out or just said "I agree" instead? The rest of your post doesn't depend on us knowing what you came here to say.
  - droithomme 15y ago
    Sure I think you are right. I sometimes maintain a conversational tone here, so expressing personal surprise at seeing what I was going to type as the top comment just sort of came out. I "hated to say it" because it's such an overused trite idiom. But yeah, it added little and "I agree" would have been a smoother intro.

adrianwaj 15y ago

They should go more negative and turn off the sun or more positive and build a new internet that day.

knieveltech 15y ago

Has anyone besides RTM ever successfully dropped the majority of the network?

tomjen3 15y ago
The name escapes me for the moment, but there was a famous computer virus which I believe did almost to do that. They key wasn't that it was particularly clever and the attack vector it used had been patched by MS months before. The key was that the attack happened over UDP which meant that there was no handshake, no congestion control, no need to worry about dropped packets, etc. The only limitation was the bandwidth of the infected host -- the virus itself was less than 500 bytes (not kilo, just straight bytes) so a single host could infect tens of millions of computers. It was a pretty fascination piece of malware.
- Diederich 15y ago
  Code Red http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Red_(computer_worm) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Red_(computer_worm) did a lot of damage, but I believe it was an attack on IIS, therefor TCP based.
  - tomjen3 15y ago
    It wasn't code Red. It was latter and attacked a database discovery service for MSSQL.
    - davux 15y ago
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Slammer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Slammer
- minimax 15y ago
  You're talking about SQL Slammer. The whole virus fit in a single UDP packet. Wired had a pretty good (if slightly sensational) writeup at the time: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/slammer.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/slammer.html

juxta 15y ago

Maybe it's a pre-april fools prank (as in it's probably not going to happen but the extra hype will be the prank)! No one would take it seriously (even more seriously) if this fell on sunday.

tzs 15y ago

I'd love to see a few prominent sites (Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, and so on) get together secretly and agree to have, say, a 10 minute outage at the same time during this--just to see what these "hackers" do if they think for a bit they actually succeeded.

philip1209 15y ago

How much redundancy is built into the GMail nameservers? That worries me more than http requests. Also, should I host my own nameservers and assume I'll fly under the radar of attacks?

astrodust 15y ago
This is allegedly targeted at the root servers. It doesn't matter what DNS provider you use if your TLD is offline.
- sneak 15y ago
  Delegations from the root to the TLDs and from the TLDs to second-level domains generally have TTLs of over 24 hours. This attack will have zero effect.
  - philip1209 15y ago
    Good point. They'll bring it down for a day and nothing will happen. Is it likely that the big email providers keep the caching longer and could maintain some functionality in the event the TLD nameservers are down for more than 24 hours?

aw3c2 15y ago

Unless they keep their attack up / the DNS root down long enough to make cache timeout, this should not be noticed by any "normal" people.

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hornbaker 15y ago
With google.com and many other big players having a TTL of 300s, that's not a long time.
- sneak 15y ago
  They are not planning to attack Google's name servers, just the root servers that hold the delegations for the TLDs. The .com delegation is set to cache for 48 hours, for example. This simply will not work at all.
Dylan16807 15y ago
I don't understand why people say this. At any given minute, aren't 1/n caches about to expire? So a few people will be hit immediately, and the number will grow from there.

inchcombec 15y ago

I really hate the fact that this nonsense keeps getting reported. Even the article itself, while it has the headline "'Anonymous' hackers plan to shut down the Internet this Saturday", states that "there is really no need to fear". Better title: 'A few individuals make crazy claims of doing something impossible.'. Not only would it be basically impossible to take down the DNS servers even if they had large participation, but there will be essentially no participation since most main 'anonymous' sites/leaders are telling people to have nothing to do with it. This is just nonsense intended to drive up hit counts. I really don't think a person needs to be very technical to realize this is nonsense. Most people aren't rocket scientists, but would have the sense to call bullshit pretty quickly if I claimed I was going to test a working warp drive on Friday. I've never understand why computers seem so complicated and strange to people that the same common sense and critical thinking that makes it obvious I don't really have a warp drive don't seem to apply.

cmfoster 15y ago
You can read http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2002/07/54040?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2002/07/54040?... While it is unlikely that this will actually happen you are still far from correct saying that this is virtually impossible, for certain this is possible. If anyone here recalls the blackhat heydays pre-2003 you may have/have not recalled a group known as "Fluffy Bunny" that broke into (at the time) what were thought to be the some of the most secure box's on the net, a few to name were VA software, UU.net(efnet), (cross site scripting) securityfocus.com, sans.org, (even a site dedicated to making fun of and host mirrors of defaced websites) attrition.org. Getting back to the original point I was trying to make, one of their most notable hacks was breaking into multiple Akamai servers. No remote exploits were used against Akamai servers, every computer they had access to at Akamai was gained through a patch version of ssh which recorded all users password before encryption and placed it in a log file within a hidden directory on the system, this patch was installed on every box they exploited, they got lucky when a user from the uu.net box logged into an Akamai box using the compromised ssh client. So they have Akamai, now what? The group further infiltrated their way into Akamai's intranet and gained access to other computers on their network through social engineering. Finally they located the development server that stored the source code that Akamai used to update some 12,000+ high bandwidth servers they used. The plan was to patch the update software they used to automate the patching process to also include a rootkit&DDoS client. With this they would be able to control a ridiculously large botnet, joined with their already amassed 4000+ DDoS net from other compromised computers this would have effectively timed out all 13 top level root name servers. More then likely you can tell what happens after that. If you were interested to know, these guys were caught out out of the stupidity of this guy. http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/22/local/me-24959 http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/22/local/me-24959 Whom was drunk and instead of hanging up decided to curse out a field technician that came onto the centrex line(thanks AT&T) they used to communicate through. This resulted in the tech recording the line 24/7 and eventually handing the information over to the authorities.

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