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Fedora users and developers encountered widespread service disruptions today as a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeted the project's core infrastructure. Key systems including Koji (build system), Bodhi (update management), and FAS (Fedora Account System authentication) became intermittently unreachable or responded with timeouts and SSL errors, crippling workflows for package maintainers and end-users alike.

The Fedora infrastructure team confirmed the attack isn't affecting user installations directly—individual Fedora Workstation or KDE spins remain functional—but warned that services hosted on Fedora's own infrastructure are primary targets. Third-party platforms like the Discourse-powered discussion forum remain unaffected. This precision targeting suggests intimate knowledge of Fedora's operational architecture.

"This is not a DDoS attack on Fedora systems, but on some of our infrastructure. It is relevant which service you want to use," clarified a Fedora contributor in the community forum. Services operated externally, like Discourse, remain online, while self-hosted critical paths bear the brunt.

Developers reported cascading failures:
- rpm-ostree and Flatpak updates failing with 504 Gateway Timeouts or SSL connection errors
- Kernel testing workflows via Koji halted
- Package submission and update approval via Bodhi disrupted

The attack floods Fedora's servers with malicious traffic, overwhelming resources like a highway gridlock preventing legitimate users from reaching destinations. While not compromising data, it halts development pipelines and update mechanisms. Users are advised to avoid repeated update attempts, which exacerbate load, and await resolution notices.

This incident underscores the fragility of open-source infrastructure. Fedora, like many community-driven projects, operates critical services with limited defensive resources compared to commercial entities. The precision of this attack raises questions about whether maintainers of major distributions need deeper investment in DDoS mitigation—especially as geopolitical and ideological motives increasingly target open-source ecosystems.

As the Fedora team battles the flood, the community watches. Their resilience will test the strength of the open-source model itself when infrastructure—not code—becomes the battlefield.

Source: Fedora Discussion Forum