From the second half of last year to the first half of this year, the renowned dark web forum Dread has been consistently subjected to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and has undergone prolonged code upgrades, rendering it inaccessible. It was only in July that normal access was restored, allowing users to access it through alternate onion domains. Recently, "ODN" has observed that Dread forum has once again experienced multiple access issues, reportedly due to ongoing DDoS attacks. However, the Dread forum administrators state that thanks to the new PoW (Proof of Work) defense mechanism on the Tor network, the forum has managed to stay online. Nevertheless, users are required to upgrade their Tor browsers to the latest version.
In the latter part of November, Dread forum has been closely following the events surrounding the suspected "exit scam" of Bohemia Market. Despite appearing as one of the most "ethical" places on the dark web, it has attracted considerable hostility over the years and has been under DDoS attacks for an extended period, intensifying recently. This has led to both onion links, including backup links, being rendered inaccessible.
On the clear web, Reddit forums also have numerous users inquiring about whether Dread forum has gone offline. Some even claim to have been unsuccessful in accessing Dread forum for three months.
On November 23, Dread forum administrator hugbunt3r posted a topic announcement on Reddit with a PGP signature: "DoS Attack – We are online, upgrade your Tor Browser!" The announcement states that Dread has encountered another DoS attack attempt, resulting in the current mirror domain being offline for the past few hours. They have activated PoW (Proof of Work) defense and are back online. Users who wish to access the platform must install or upgrade to the latest version of the Tor browser, which supports PoW defense. If using the Tails operating system and haven't upgraded in a while, Tails must be updated to the latest version to receive the Tor browser upgrade. The primary onion link of the Dread forum will remain closed as it cannot currently initiate full PoW defense.
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Hash: SHA512
We’ve been experiencing another DoS attack attempt which has held the current mirror offline for the last few hours. We have enabled PoW (Proof-of-work) defenses and we are back online. PoW access requires you to have one of the recent Tor Browser releases if you want to access the platform.
If you haven’t upgraded yet, do so now. If you are using Tails and haven’t upgraded for a while, you need to finally make the jump and upgrade to the latest version to receive the Tor Browser upgrade.
Main onion link will remain down as we cannot launch it with full PoW defenses at this time.
Current alternative mirror: http://g66ol3eb5ujdckzqqfmjsbpdjufmjd5nsgdipvxmsh7rckzlhywlzlqd.onion
November 23rd, 2023
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The announcement reiterates the current alternate mirror onion domain that can be accessed: http://g66ol3eb5ujdckzqqfmjsbpdjufmjd5nsgdipvxmsh7rckzlhywlzlqd.onion
In a reply, a user named "aimredditman" asks, "Why do people DDOS dread and the marketplaces? They are doing a good public service for the community."
A humorous user "gerundive" responds, "because 1) there is a 'war against drugs', 2) there are amoral/immoral criminals, and 3) some people prefer to break things rather than make things -- and the answer as to why that is so could possibly be summed up by 'variety is the spice of life', or to put it more scientifically, we live in a stochastic universe :)"
However, based on feedback from some new posts and replies on the Reddit forum, the currently under-attack Dread forum remains unstable, and there is a significant likelihood of the backup link not connecting.
Presently, "ODN" has tested access to the Dread forum using the latest version of the Tor browser (version 13.0.5, based on Mozilla Firefox 115.5.0esr) and found it to be accessible. "ODN" will continue testing and monitoring access issues with the Dread forum.
For more updates on the dark web, follow "ODN".