Arch Linux, the widely respected but notoriously hands-on Linux distribution, has been weathering a relentless Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack for more than two weeks. The assault has left its main website, the Arch User Repository (AUR), and community forums intermittently inaccessible, frustrating users and raising questions about the attackers’ motives.
A Relentless Attack With No Clear Culprit
The ongoing DDoS campaign began in early August and continues to strain Arch’s online services. Cristian Heusel, a project maintainer, confirmed the scale of the disruption in a recent update:
“The Arch Linux Project is currently experiencing an ongoing denial of service attack that primarily impacts our main webpage, the Arch User Repository (AUR), and the Forums. We are aware of the problems this creates for our end users and will continue to work with our hosting provider to mitigate the attack actively.”
The attackers’ identity and goals remain unknown. Some community speculation suggests the Arch infrastructure was targeted simply because it is lightly defended compared to corporate-backed distributions like Ubuntu or Fedora. Others see it as a test run by a hacking group.
Why Not Cloudflare?
One key question raised by the community is why Arch hasn’t already partnered with providers like Cloudflare, which offers free DDoS protection for major open-source projects. The answer may lie in Arch’s philosophy: the distribution is run entirely by volunteers who adhere to strict open-source and ethical principles, which may not align with commercial providers.
The Arch team confirmed they are “evaluating DDoS protection providers, carefully considering factors including cost, security, and ethical standards.”
Workarounds for Users
Despite the outages, users have alternative paths to keep their systems updated:
- Use Mirrors: Instead of the main Arch site, rely on the mirrors listed in your pacman-mirrorlist package for downloads and updates.
- Fetch From GitHub: For AUR packages, clone directly from the GitHub mirror:
git clone –branch <package_name> –single-branch https://github.com/archlinux/aur.git <package_name>
- Check Status Page: The Arch team is posting updates on its service status page, where the latest notice (Aug 22, 2025) confirmed: “We are suffering from partial outages due to DDoS attacks and are trying our best to keep the services accessible to all!”
Bigger Than Arch
The disruption extends beyond Arch Linux enthusiasts. Arch forms the base for Valve’s SteamOS, used on the Steam Deck, as well as popular derivatives like Manjaro and EndeavourOS. With Arch now more mainstream than ever, outages ripple out to a broader community of Linux users.
Community Spirit Tested
Founded in 2002 by Judd Vinet, Arch Linux has always been built around the KISS principle, Keep It Simple, Stupid, placing control firmly in the hands of its users. But the ongoing DDoS attack has revealed the challenges volunteer-driven projects face when defending themselves against hostile actors.
Heusel closed his latest update with gratitude:
“As a volunteer-driven project, we appreciate the community’s patience as our DevOps team works to resolve these issues. Please bear with us, and thank you for all the support you have shown so far.”
For now, Arch users will need patience and a few workarounds as the project continues its fight to restore complete stability.
