Notorious hacker group “Anonymous Operations” on Wednesday released the first version of its own desktop operating system. Dubbed Anonymous-OS, the computer platform is built on top of the open-source Linux-based Ubuntu 11.10 operating system, and it also utilizes the open-source Mate desktop environment, The Hacker News reports. It is unclear exactly who is behind the operating system, which comes with a number of tools pre-installed that are apparently Anonymous-approved. Included are Anonymous HOIC, John the Ripper, SQL Poison and more. Version 0.1 of the hacker group’s Anonymous-OS is free and available immediately for download, though readers should obviously exercise caution.
Called Anonymous-OS Live, the 32-bit platform is built on top of the open-source Linux-based Ubuntu 11.10 operating system. It uses the Mate desktop and comes packed with pre-installed software including the Tor browser, Hash Identifier, XChat IRC, SQL Poison, Find Host IP, ParolaPass Password Generator, Anonymous HOIC and more.
Anonymous-OS Live v0.1 is free and available immediately for download by heading here (1.4 GB)
Not long after, one of the active Anonymous Twitter accounts tweeted that the operating system is in fact fake, and is “wrapped in Trojans”.
The OS has been downloaded over 20,000 times in less than four days, and while a couple of the comments on SourceFourge indicate that it is fake, it still has a user rating of 62%, with 37 users giving it the thumbs up.
The same tweet has also been shared by other Anonymous-labeled accounts including AnonNewsSec andYourAnonNews:
Whoever is behind the OS has shot back with a post, saying:
The #anonops on their twitter account say “That Anonymous-OS is wrapped in trojans.”
Please people… in our world, in Linux and opensource world, there is not virus.If any user believe that Anonymous-OS “is wrapped in trojans” or “backdoored OS by any Law enforcement Company or Hacker” please don’t download it!But don’t mislead the world that Linux is dangerous and has trojans!
It’s also worth noting that in the original post announcing the OS, the well-known Anonymous slogan has seen a slight change (emphasis is our own):
We are Anonymous.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Don’t expect us, we are already here!
The departure from the typical Anonymous sign off could be an indication that there is definitely more here than meets the eye.
UPDATE: SourceForge has posted an official response to the project, detailing that it is a security risk and has been taken down. Here are some highlights from the post, bolded by us:
SourceForge, and the Open Source community as a whole, values transparency, particularly where issues of security are involved. This project isn’t transparent with regard to what’s in it. It is critical that security-related software be completely open to peer review (i.e., by providing source code), so that risks may be assessed along with benefits. That is not available in this case, and the result is that people are taking a substantial risk in downloading and installing this distribution.Furthermore, by taking an intentionally misleading name, this project has attempted to capitalize on the press surrounding a well-known movement in order to push downloads of a project that is less than a week old.We have therefore decided to take this download offline and suspend this project until we have more information that might lead us to think differently.
Either way, whether fake or not, as we advised earlier, it’s definitely not worth taking the risk of downloading the OS, no matter how curious you happen to be.
