Packages
PhantomRaven attack floods npm with credential-stealing packages
An active campaign named ‘PhantomRaven’ is targeting developers with dozens of malicious npm packages that steal authentication tokens, CI/CD secrets, and GitHub credentials. The activity started in August and deployed 126 npm packages that counted more than 86,000 downloads. The Node Package Manager (NPM) is the default package manager for Node.js, used by JavaScript developers […]
Fake WhatsApp developer libraries hide destructive data-wiping code
Two malicious NPM packages posing as WhatsApp development tools have been discovered deploying destructive data-wiping code that recursively deletes files on a developer’s computers. Two malicious NPM packages currently available in the registry target WhatsApp developers with destructive data-wiping code. The packages, discovered by researchers at Socket, masquerade as WhatsApp socket libraries and were downloaded over 1,100 […]
North Korean XORIndex malware hidden in 67 malicious npm packages
North Korean threat actors planted 67 malicious packages in the Node Package Manager (npm) online repository to deliver a new malware loader called XORIndex to developer systems. The packages collectively count more than 17,000 downloads and were discovered by researchers at package security platform Socket, who assess them to be part of the continued Contagious Interview operation. Socket researchers […]
New wave of ‘fake interviews’ use 35 npm packages to spread malware
A new wave of North Korea’s ‘Contagious Interview’ campaign is targeting job seekers with malicious npm packages that infect dev’s devices with infostealers and backdoors. The packages were discovered by Socket Threat Research, which reports they load the BeaverTail info-stealer and InvisibleFerret backdoor on victims’ machines, two well-documented payloads associated with DPRK actors. The latest attack wave uses […]
Supply chain attack hits Gluestack NPM packages with 960K weekly downloads
A significant supply chain attack hit NPM after 16 popular Gluestack ‘react-native-aria’ packages with over 950,000 weekly downloads were compromised to include malicious code that acts as a remote access trojan (RAT). GeekFeed determined that the compromise began on June 6 at 4:33 PM EST, when a new version of the react-native-aria/focus package was published to NPM. Since […]
Malicious NPM package uses Unicode steganography to evade detection
A malicious package in the Node Package Manager index uses invisible Unicode characters to hide malicious code and Google Calendar links to host the URL for the command-and-control location. The package, named os-info-checker-es6, appears as an information utility and has been downloaded more than 1,000 times since the beginning of the month. Researchers at Veracode, a code security assessment […]
Malicious PyPI packages abuse Gmail, websockets to hijack systems
Seven malicious PyPi packages were found using Gmail’s SMTP servers and WebSockets for data exfiltration and remote command execution. The packages were discovered by Socket’s threat research team, who reported their findings to the PyPI, resulting in the removal of the packages. However, some of these packages were on PyPI for over four years, and based […]
AI-hallucinated code dependencies become new supply chain risk
A new class of supply chain attacks named ‘slopsquatting’ has emerged from the increased use of generative AI tools for coding and the model’s tendency to “hallucinate” non-existent package names. The term slopsquatting was coined by security researcher Seth Larson as a spin on typosquatting, an attack method that tricks developers into installing malicious packages by using […]
Carding tool abusing WooCommerce API downloaded 34K times on PyPI
A newly discovered malicious PyPi package named ‘disgrasya’ that abuses legitimate WooCommerce stores for validating stolen credit cards has been downloaded over 34,000 times from the open-source package platform. The script specifically targeted WooCommerce stores using the CyberSource payment gateway to validate cards, which is a key step for carding actors who need to evaluate thousands of stolen […]
Infostealer campaign compromises 10 npm packages, targets devs
Ten npm packages were suddenly updated with malicious code yesterday to steal environment variables and other sensitive data from developers’ systems. The campaign targeted multiple cryptocurrency-related packages, and the popular ‘country-currency-map’ package was downloaded thousands of times a week. The malicious code was discovered by Sonatype researcher Ali ElShakankiry and is found in two heavily obfuscated […]