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Vulnerabilities and Exploits
Account security Account Takeover BreachForums Dark Web Data Safety GitHub NPM Vulnerabilities and Exploits

Critical npm Account Takeover Vulnerability Sold on Dark Web

 

A cybercriminal known as Alderson1337 has emerged on BreachForums, offering a critical exploit targeting npm accounts. This vulnerability poses a significant threat to npm, a crucial package manager for JavaScript managed by npm, Inc., a subsidiary of GitHub. Alderson1337 claims this exploit can enable attackers to hijack npm accounts linked to specific employees within organizations. 

The method involves embedding undetectable backdoors into npm packages used by these employees, potentially compromising numerous devices upon updates. This exploit could have widespread implications for organizational security. Instead of sharing a proof of concept (PoC) publicly, Alderson1337 has invited interested buyers to contact him privately, aiming to maintain the exploit’s confidentiality and exclusivity. If executed successfully, this npm exploit could inject backdoors into npm packages, leading to extensive device compromise. 

However, npm has not yet issued an official statement, leaving the claims unverified. The incident primarily impacts npm Inc., with npmjs.com being the related website. While the potential repercussions are global, the specific industry impact remains undefined. Account takeover (ATO) vulnerabilities represent severe risks where cybercriminals gain unauthorized access to online accounts by exploiting stolen credentials. These credentials are often obtained through social engineering, data breaches, or phishing attacks. 

Once acquired, attackers use automated bots to test these credentials across various platforms, including travel, retail, finance, eCommerce, and social media sites. Users’ reluctance to update passwords and reusing them across different platforms increase the risk of credential stuffing and brute force attacks. Such practices allow attackers to access accounts, potentially leading to identity theft, financial fraud, or misuse of personal information. To mitigate ATO attack risks, experts recommend adopting strong password management practices, including using unique, complex passwords for each account and enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever possible. Regular monitoring for unauthorized account activities and promptly responding to suspicious login attempts are also crucial for maintaining account security. 

While Alderson1337’s claims await verification, this incident underscores the ongoing challenges posed by account takeover vulnerabilities in today’s interconnected digital landscape. Vigilance and collaboration across the cybersecurity community are essential to mitigating these threats and preserving the integrity of online platforms and services.
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NPM
Cyber Attacks Cyber Hackers Cyberattack Threat CyberCrime Cybersecurity GDPR GitHub North Korea NPM

New Cyber Threat: North Korean Hackers Exploit npm for Malicious Intent

 


There has been an updated threat warning from GitHub regarding a new North Korean attack campaign that uses malicious dependencies on npm packages to compromise victims. An earlier blog post published by the development platform earlier this week claimed that the attacks were against employees of blockchain, cryptocurrency, online gambling, and cybersecurity companies.   

Alexis Wales, VP of GitHub security operations, said that attacks often begin when attackers pretend to be developers or recruiters, impersonating them with fake GitHub, LinkedIn, Slack, or Telegram profiles. There are cases in which legitimate accounts have been hijacked by attackers. 

Another highly targeted attack campaign has been launched against the NPM package registry, aimed at enticing developers into downloading immoral modules by enticing them to install malicious third-party software. There was a significant attack wave uncovered in June, and it has since been linked to North Korean threat actors by the supply chain security firm Phylum, according to Hacker News. This attack wave appears to exhibit similar behaviours as another that was discovered in June. 

During the period from August 9 to August 12, 2023, it was identified that nine packages were uploaded to NPM. Among the libraries that are included in this file are ws-paso-jssdk, pingan-vue-floating, srm-front-util, cloud-room-video, progress-player, ynf-core-loader, ynf-core-renderer, ynf-dx-scripts, and ynf-dx-webpack-plugins. A conversation is initiated with the target and attempts are made to move the conversation to another platform after contacting them. 

As the attacker begins to execute the attack chain, it is necessary to have a post-install hook in the package.json file to execute the index.js file which executes after the package has been installed. In this instance, a daemon process is called Android. The daemon is launched as a dependency on the legitimate pm2 module and, in turn, a JavaScript file named app.js is executed. 

A JavaScript script is crafted in a way that initiates encrypted two-way communications with a remote server 45 seconds after the package is installed by masquerading as RustDesk remote desktop software – "ql. rustdesk[.]net," a spoofed domain posing as the authentic RustDesk remote desktop software. This information entails the compromised host's details and information. 

The malware pings every 45 seconds to check for further instructions, which are decoded and executed in turn, after which the malware checks for new instructions every 45 seconds. As the Phylum Research Team explained, "It would seem to be that the attackers are monitoring the GUIDs of the machines in question and selectively sending additional payloads (which are encoded Javascript code) to the machines of interest in the direction of the GUID monitors," they added. 

In the past few months there have been several typosquat versions of popular Ethereum packages in the npm repository that attempts to make HTTP requests to Chinese servers to retrieve the encryption key from the wallet on the wallet.cba123[.]cn, which had been discovered. 

Additionally, the highly popular NuGet package, Moq, has come under fire since new versions of the package released last week included a dependency named SponsorLink, that extracted the SHA-256 hash of developers' email addresses from local Git configurations and sent them to a cloud service without their knowledge. In addition, Moq has been receiving criticism after new versions released last week came with the SponsorLink dependency. 

Version 4.20.2 of the app has been rolled back as a result of the controversial changes that raise GDPR compliance issues. Despite this, Bleeping Computer reported that Amazon Web Services (AWS) had withdrawn its support for the project, which may have done serious damage to the project's reputation. 

There are also reports that organizations are increasingly vulnerable to dependency confusion attacks, which could've led to developers unwittingly introducing malicious or vulnerable code into their projects, thus resulting in large-scale attacks on supply chains on a large scale. 

There are several mitigations that you can use to prevent dependency confusion attacks. For example, we recommend publishing internal packages under scopes assigned to organizations and setting aside internal package names as placeholders in the public registry to prevent misuse of those names.

Throughout the history of cybersecurity, the recent North Korean attack campaign exploiting npm packages has served as an unmistakable reminder that the threat landscape is transforming and that more sophisticated tactics are being implemented to defeat it. For sensitive data to be safeguarded and further breaches to be prevented, it is imperative that proactive measures are taken and vigilant measures are engaged. To reduce the risks posed by these intricate cyber tactics, organizations need to prioritize the verification of identity, the validation of packages, and the management of internal packages.
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GitHub Linux macOS malware NPM

Linux, MacOS Malware Hidden in Fake Browserify NPM Package

 

Over the course of the weekend, Sonatype's automated malware detection system spotted a serious exceptional malware sample published to the NPM registry. NodeJS engineers working with Linux and Apple macOS operating systems were targeted by a brand-new malicious package recognized on the NPM (Node Package Manager) registry. The malignant package, named "web-browserify" looks like the well-known Browserify NPM component which has been downloaded in excess of 160 million times all through its lifecycle, with over 1.3 million weekly downloads on NPM alone, being utilized by 356,000 GitHub repositories. 

Evidently, the malignant component has been downloaded around 50 times before it was taken out from the NPM within two days of its publishing. The package, made by a pseudonymous creator portraying themselves to be Steve Jobs, consolidates many approved open-source components and executes extensive surveillance actions on a contaminated system. Besides, up to this point, none of the main antivirus engines had the option to identify the ELF malware contained with the component. The way that it utilizes genuine software applications to perform dubious exercises could be one of the reasons. 

Browserify's fame comes from it being an open-source JavaScript instrument that permits developers to write cross-platform, NodeJS-style modules that gather for use in the browser. The distinction between the authentic Browserify and the phony one is that the latter abuses legitimate NPM components to bundle inside a malicious, hard to notice Linux and Mac executable. 

The malignant bundle incorporates a manifest file, package.json, a postinstall.js script, and an ELF executable called "run" existing in a compressed archive, run.tar.xz inside the npm component. When a developer is installing the package, the scripts pull out and start the "run" Linux binary from the archive, which demands elevated or root permissions from the user. The extracted "run" binary is immense, around 120 MB in size, and bundles inside itself hundreds of legitimate NPM components. The malware is made totally from open source components and uses these genuine components to organize its extensive surveillance activities. 

The cross-platform “sudo-prompt” module is one of these components and is used by "run" to provoke the client into permitting the malware root privileges on both macOS and Linux distributions.
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