Lately a fad of allowing crowdsourced control of video games has invaded popular videogame streaming website Twitch TV (Twitch Interactive, Inc.). First it was Twitch Plays Pokemon then more interesting iterations appeared such as Twitch Plays Dark Souls (an extremely difficult game for someone without hundreds of fingers going in opposite directions).

Over the weekend an entirely new endeavor met the Twitch Plays treatment when a project named Twitch in the Shell decided to try to let the Twitch community install Arch Linux (a simple Linux OS installation) on a virtual machine. The entire endeavor launched on Halloween, October 31, 2015 and via taking commands from the Twitch chat would use a democratization algorithm to post them to the Linux command shell.

To see current progress visit the Twitch Installs Arch Linux livestream, but as it’s offline currently there is a past video archive to watch how it went.

While the endeavor is interesting, it did not go entirely according to plan. While the objective is to install Arch Linux, during the last two days of being online something odd started happening to the channel: users began to show up in overwhelming force (and agreement) who began to input commands that would eventually download and install Gentoo (a different flavor of Linux OS). This invasion was identified as a botnet attempting to overwhelm the human users and the channel has been shut down as a result.

The botnet arrives and the stream diverts course

The first few goes seem to continue with fits and starts as many users spend a lot of time griefing the crowd by typing commands that either reset or backtrack progress. However, eventually Twitch Installs Arch Linux met the botnet and everything began to go downhill from there (at least from the human perspective).

The power of a botnet is such that multiple computers controlling multiple accounts can log into the Twitch chat and coordinate between themselves to overwhelm the vote. This also means that the botnet controller (essentially in control of a large number of “people”) can overtake the voting algorithm and whatever command the controller wants will become law.

The result: Instead of Arch Linux, suddenly the whim of the botnet controller (obvious Gentoo Linux) slowly begins to take fruition. The rest of the players of Twitch Installs Arch Linux could only gaze on in impotent confusion as the botnet took over.

As the Arch / Gentoo war drags on, blood is spilled on both sides

— twitchintheshell (@twitchshell) November 2, 2015

It may be early to claim this was the work of an actual “botnet” (where multiple hijacked computers are involved) the attacker ran multiple accounts all at once. This doesn’t require a botnet per se because it can be done with multiple processes on a single machine, however it also makes it much easier to detect and ban (as it also means that all the connections would most likely come from a single IP address). At this time it’s unknown exactly how sophisticated the attack was. And, who spends a lot of time trying to install Gentoo for the Internet anyway?

Of course, after the botnet’s tampering was discovered by the Twitch Installs Arch Linux administrators it was taken offline.

Plans are currently in place to reset the virtual machine and restart the livestream. Presumably after all the accounts known to be part of the botnet are banhammered into the Stone Age. It is worth noting that botnetting a Twitch chat is also against the Twitch Terms of Service (TOS) so it will likely also bring in the involvement of Twitch staff.

Twitch Installs Arch Linux is not the most mesmerizing livestream to watch, but it’s still an interesting study in cooperative (or non-cooperative) behavior amid users.

Become part of Twitch Installs Arch Linux

Live streaming the installation of a Linux OS distribution takes a bit of custom software—something must take the input from the Twitch chat, democratize the inputs and then enter the commands. As a result, there’s also an open source effort behind this entire project that allows users not only to vote via the Twitch channel, but involve themselves in expanding the project.

Potential players (and coders) interested in seeing additions to the project can go to the GitHub repository and make suggestions.

A tale of woes and griefing upgrades to DDoS

Not willing to leave well enough alone, some group (potentially the attackers attempting to install Gentoo Linux) decided to escalate from botnetting the now-offline Twitch stream to out-and-out DDoS.

DDoS or overly enthusiastic hug of death? You decide pic.twitter.com/vOKdl668ZU

— twitchintheshell (@twitchshell) November 2, 2015

In the realm of the Internet, DDoS is a common juvenile go-to for attackers who have been thwarted from doing something socially unacceptable. Many a moderated community or even large video game (“Star Trek Online, Neverwinter Online struck by DDoS attacks twice in one day”) has seen themselves the target of massive DDoS attacks for what seems often simple childish caprice. This is likely no different for the Twitch Installs Linux crew.

Image credit: Screenshot of http://twitchintheshell.com/