Ubuntu services outage affected many users starting on Thursday. The attack targeted the infrastructure that powers crucial Ubuntu services.

Ubuntu services outage

Hacktivists claimed responsibility for the Ubuntu services outage. They targeted Canonical, the company maintaining Ubuntu.

Therefore, Canonical reported a cross-border attack on its web infrastructure. They are still working to resolve the Ubuntu services outage.

Furthermore, the attack used a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) method. This attack overwhelmed Ubuntu’s services with junk internet traffic until they crashed.

Ubuntu developers discussed the Ubuntu services outage in unofficial forums. They said the DDoS affected the security API and several Canonical websites.

Consequently, many users could not update or install Ubuntu during the Ubuntu services outage. TechCrunch verified that updates failed on a test device.

The outage lasted around 20 hours at the time of writing. Canonical confirmed their statement from the original source on their official site.

Hacktivist group “Islamic Cyber Resistance in Iraq 313 Team” claimed responsibility. They admitted to launching the DDoS attack behind the Ubuntu services outage.

Additionally, the hackers reportedly used a DDoS-for-hire service called Beamed. DDoS-for-hire services allow anyone to launch attacks without technical knowledge.

Some of these services can generate over 3.5 Tbps in attack bandwidth. This is nearly half of the largest DDoS attack ever recorded, according to TechCrunch.

For years, authorities such as the FBI and Europol have tried to stop these services. However, DDoS-for-hire providers often reappear after takedowns and domain seizures.

Tags: Ubuntu services outage, Ubuntu DDoS attack, Canonical infrastructure down, Ubuntu downtime, distributed denial of service, Ubuntu security outage, hacktivist cyber attack, Linux services disruption