North Korean XORIndex malware hidden in 67 malicious NPM packages(www.bleepingcomputer.com)
31 pointsby Bogdanp3 days ago4 comments
  • owebmaster3 days ago
    I "got" hacked by a North Korean hacker. I was lucky the dumb virus was meant for Mac and Windows, not Linux. It got installed to my computer but attempted to steal credentials in places there did not exist in my computer, but it was a close call.

    After that I never used npm again.

    • hollerith3 days ago
      Do you use apps built on Electron? The npm packages chosen for inclusion in the app are not sandboxed in any way IIUC (at least on Linux that is the case).

      Some security people are warning against Electron (at least on Linux):

      https://github.com/secureblue/secureblue/issues/193#issuecom...

      • owebmaster3 days ago
        Yeah. Only Codium (VSCode fork) tho and now that I thought about it, time to stop using it.
    • braebo3 days ago
      How did you know? Now I’m worried I’ve been hacked a billion times testing npm packages just today.
      • owebmaster3 days ago
        > How did you know?

        A recruiter profile disappeared from my inbox in linkedin after I sent a PR to a github project for a an interview so I got suspicious and checked if there was any unrecognized open connection usng `lsof -nPi | grep ESTABLISHED` and there was one, found the script, read it to see what it did - tried to steal crypto and browser credentials.

        To be sure it did not install other stuff I could not find I did a full reinstall of the OS. Now I don't use npm ever again.

      • hulitu2 days ago
        > How did you know?

        He installed npm, pypy and cargo. /s

  • cyanydeez3 days ago
    North korea and others are likely going if not already, setup an uno reverso and get applicants to do screening tests that require downloading malicious packages.
  • leggomuhgreggo2 days ago
    It must be "sanctions renewal" season!

    The vipers in the big nest need a bunch of trash cyber security media to premise renewal of sanctions against DPRK.

    Bless our patriotic vipers, and their white hat hackers/influencers.

  • bn-l3 days ago
    It’s weird how an npm package can just do all this still, to this day.
    • Bridged77563 days ago
      Given the size of the JavaScript ecosystem, it is indeed baffling how behind npm is. One npm i and a typo away from getting hacked.