For reasons unknown at the moment, the famous and perhaps infamous hacker group Anonymous has just released its own OS. As described on Source Forge, “Anonymous-OS Live is an ubuntu-based distribution and created for educational purposes, to checking the security of web pages.” It was created under Ubuntu 11.10 and uses Mate desktop.

A Tumblr blog was set up to provide updates on the development, and its About page reveals more details on the project. Perhaps to keep the developers safe, the blog actually notes that the operating system should not be used “to destroy any web page.” The warning, as it was awkwardly written:

If you attack to any web page, might end up in jail because is a crime in most countries! *** The user has total responsibility for any illegal act. ***

It’s interesting to note that DuckDuckGo appears to be the default search engine for the OS. It’s definitely a relevant choice, but I wouldn’t have ever thought it the official search engine for Anonymous.

Here are the preinstalled apps on Anonymous-OS:

– ParolaPass Password Generator

– Find Host IP

– Anonymous HOIC

– Ddosim

– Pyloris

– Slowloris

– TorsHammer

– Sqlmap

– Havij

– Sql Poison

– Admin Finder

– John the Ripper

– Hash Identifier

– Tor

– XChat IRC

– Pidgin

– Vidalia

– Polipo

– JonDo

– i2p

– Wireshark

– Zenmap

…and more Including BroadcomBCM43xx wireless driver.

At the moment, all I can say is that Anonymous-OS is a very unexpected if not outright strange direction for the group. Sure, it makes sense to rely on Linux for the added transparency and safety from tracking, but is Anonymous-OS actually built from the ground up to safe-guard its members?

As The Hacker News notes, the OS is not developed by any particular or genuine source, and could be backdoored by law enforcement companies or hackers. Seriously, you can download this via the link below, but do so at your own risk!

If you’re still looking for more information, you can learn more about the project, the creators, contact them and check out extra screenshots.

➤ Anonymous-OS

Update: Anonymous claims that the operating system is fake.

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