SOFTEPDIA
Anonymous Created Special DDoS Tool Just for the #OpOlympicHacking Attacks
http://news.softpedia.com/news/anonymous-created-special-ddos-tool-just-for-the-opolympichacking-attacks-507500.shtml
Aug 20, 2016 21:25 GMT ยท By Catalin Cimpanu
Tool used to automate attacks against five major targets
Members of the Anonymous hacker collective have created a custom tool that allows them and any person to launch DDoS attacks at five built-in targets. The tool was released to aid the group in its recent hacktivism campaign named #OpOlympicHacking, which started at the beginning of the month, just in time for the Rio Olympic Games. The tool is a Windows executable that launches a window with six buttons, as pictured below this article. The first five buttons are for attacking five built-in targets, while the sixth is for stopping the attacks. The tool can be used only for #OpOlympicHacking attacks The five targets are the official Rio 2016 Olympics website, the Brazil 2016 government portal, the Brazil Olympic Committee website, the government portal for the city of Rio de Janeiro, and the website for Brazil's Sports Ministry. These are only a few of the targets Anonymous hackers included in a list of they uploaded online when they announced #OpOlympicHacking at the start of the month. The DDoS tool is offered online as a free download called "opolympddos." Softpedia has discovered links to this tool on Twitter. At the time of writing, the links are dead, so we couldn't check and see if the DDoS tool came with other malware built-in. Users should not download and run this tool because (1) they would be carrying out an illegal activity; (2) they would be exposing themselves to possible malware infections. Users need Tor before using the tool According to security researchers from RSA, the tool is a mashup of VB, Python, and .NET scripts packaged into a Windows executable. Researchers say that users that install this tool are told to install Tor as well, to hide their real IP. Launching "opolympddos" executes out a Layer 7 DoS attack. "This is achieved by creating persistent connections and sending HTTP requests with random data and user-agents," the RSA team explained. Compared to other Anonymous ops, the #OpOlympicHacking campaign can be considered a success, bringing a lot of attention to its cause via high-profile hacks.