Anonymous Argentina started offering the Android version to its supporters

Feb 21, 2012 12:13 GMT  ·  By

The Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) is popular among hackers who want to take down a certain website and recently we’ve seen a lot of variants, including the JavaScript-powered version that allows even inexperienced hackers to attack sites. Now, researchers came across a version that’s designed for Android users.

McAfee experts report that the tool was first advertised by Anonymous Argentina, the hacktivists urging their supporters to download the application to aid their cause.

This WebLOIC for Android isn’t something that was developed from scratch, instead the hackers easily ported the web application using a free online service that creates Android apps from a URL or a piece of HTML code.

Created to aid Anonymous in OpArgentina, the LOIC for Android was released in a hurry, the web page not even being resized to fit the screen of a smartphone.

Further analysis of this tool allowed researchers to determine that it’s programmed to send 1,000 HTTP requests with one of the parameters being the message “We are LEGION.”

McAfee identified this tool as Android/DIYDoS and catalogued it as being a potentially unwanted program (PUP).

“Because the application’s purpose is simply to display any website on an Android system, we classify this hack tool a potentially unwanted program (PUP),” McAfee Labs Malware Researcher Carlos Castillo said.

Another reason for which this tool can be considered a PUP is because of prior reports, according to which the hacktivists tried to dupe unsuspecting Internet users into clicking on links which led to a version of web LOIC that automatically sent large numbers of packets towards a designated target.

DOS tools such as LOIC, HOIC and SLOWRIS have become popular not only among hackers, but also among regular internauts who support their causes.

The best example for this is the massive attacks that took place following the Megaupload closure. At the time, reports revealed that more than 5,000 individuals used these automated tools to launch attacks against the FBI, RIAA, the US Department of Justice and many others.