Python | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A new set of malicious packages has been unearthed in the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that masqueraded as cryptocurrency wallet recovery and management services, only to siphon sensitive data and facilitate the theft of valuable digital assets. "The attack targeted users of Atomic, Trust Wallet, Metamask, Ronin, TronLink, Exodus, and other prominent wallets in the crypto ecosystem," Checkmarx researcher Yehuda Gelb said in a Tuesday analysis. "Presenting themselves as utilities for extracting mnemonic phrases and decrypting wallet data, these packages appeared to offer valuable functionality for cryptocurrency users engaged in wallet recovery or management." However, they harbor functionality to steal private keys, mnemonic phrases, and other sensitive wallet data, such as transaction histories or wallet balances. Each of the packages attracted hundreds of downloads prior to them being taken down - atomicdecoderss (366 downloads) trondecoderss

Threat actors with ties to North Korea have been observed using poisoned Python packages as a way to deliver a new malware called PondRAT as part of an ongoing campaign. PondRAT, according to new findings from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, is assessed to be a lighter version of POOLRAT (aka SIMPLESEA), a known macOS backdoor that has been previously attributed to the Lazarus Group and deployed in attacks related to the 3CX supply chain compromise last year. Some of these attacks are part of a persistent cyber attack campaign dubbed Operation Dream Job , wherein prospective targets are lured with enticing job offers in an attempt to trick them into downloading malware. "The attackers behind this campaign uploaded several poisoned Python packages to PyPI, a popular repository of open-source Python packages," Unit 42 researcher Yoav Zemah said , linking the activity with moderate confidence to a threat actor called Gleaming Pisces. The adversary is also tracked by the wid

For years, securing a company's systems was synonymous with securing its "perimeter." There was what was safe "inside" and the unsafe outside world. We built sturdy firewalls and deployed sophisticated detection systems, confident that keeping the barbarians outside the walls kept our data and systems safe. The problem is that we no longer operate within the confines of physical on-prem installations and controlled networks. Data and applications now reside in distributed cloud environments and data centers, accessed by users and devices connecting from anywhere on the planet. The walls have crumbled, and the perimeter has dissolved, opening the door to a new battlefield: identity . Identity is at the center of what the industry has praised as the new gold standard of enterprise security: "zero trust." In this paradigm, explicit trust becomes mandatory for any interactions between systems, and no implicit trust shall subsist. Every access request, regardless of its origin,

A now-patched critical security flaw impacting Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Composer could have been exploited to achieve remote code execution on cloud servers by means of a supply chain attack technique called dependency confusion. The vulnerability has been codenamed CloudImposer by Tenable Research. "The vulnerability could have allowed an attacker to hijack an internal software dependency that Google pre-installs on each Google Cloud Composer pipeline-orchestration tool," security researcher Liv Matan said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Dependency confusion (aka substitution attack), which was first documented by security researcher Alex Birsan in February 2021, refers to a type of software supply chain compromise in which a package manager is tricked into pulling a malicious package from a public repository instead of the intended file of the same name from an internal repository. So, a threat actor could stage a large-scale supply chain attack by publ

A new supply chain attack technique targeting the Python Package Index (PyPI) registry has been exploited in the wild in an attempt to infiltrate downstream organizations. It has been codenamed Revival Hijack by software supply chain security firm JFrog, which said the attack method could be used to hijack 22,000 existing PyPI packages and result in "hundreds of thousands" of malicious package downloads. These susceptible packages have more than 100,000 downloads or have been active for over six months. "This attack technique involves hijacking PyPI software packages by manipulating the option to re-register them once they're removed from PyPI's index by the original owner," JFrog security researchers Andrey Polkovnychenko and Brian Moussalli said in a report shared with The Hacker News. At its core, the attack hinges on the fact that Python packages published in the PyPI repository may get removed, making available the names of those deleted projects

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new malicious package on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that masquerades as a library from the Solana blockchain platform but is actually designed to steal victims' secrets. "The legitimate Solana Python API project is known as 'solana-py' on GitHub, but simply ' solana ' on the Python software registry, PyPI," Sonatype researcher Ax Sharma said in a report published last week. "This slight naming discrepancy has been leveraged by a threat actor who published a 'solana-py' project on PyPI." The malicious "solana-py" package attracted a total of 1,122 downloads since it was published on August 4, 2024. It's no longer available for download from PyPI. The most striking aspect of the library is that it carried the version numbers 0.34.3, 0.34.4, and 0.34.5. The latest version of the legitimate "solana" package is 0.34.3. This clearly indicates an attempt o

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious package on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that targets Apple macOS systems with the goal of stealing users' Google Cloud credentials from a narrow pool of victims. The package, named "lr-utils-lib," attracted a total of 59 downloads before it was taken down. It was uploaded to the registry in early June 2024. "The malware uses a list of predefined hashes to target specific macOS machines and attempts to harvest Google Cloud authentication data," Checkmarx researcher Yehuda Gelb said in a Friday report. "The harvested credentials are sent to a remote server." An important aspect of the package is that it first checks if it has been installed on a macOS system, and only then proceeds to compare the system's Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) against a hard-coded list of 64 hashes. If the compromised machine is among those specified in the predefined set, it attempts to access

Cybersecurity researchers said they discovered an accidentally leaked GitHub token that could have granted elevated access to the GitHub repositories of the Python language, Python Package Index (PyPI), and the Python Software Foundation (PSF). JFrog, which found the GitHub Personal Access Token, said the secret was leaked in a public Docker container hosted on Docker Hub. "This case was exceptional because it is difficult to overestimate the potential consequences if it had fallen into the wrong hands – one could supposedly inject malicious code into PyPI packages (imagine replacing all Python packages with malicious ones), and even to the Python language itself," the software supply chain security company said . An attacker could have hypothetically weaponized their admin access to orchestrate a large-scale supply chain attack by poisoning the source code associated with the core of the Python programming language, or the PyPI package manager. JFrog noted that the aut

Did you know it's now possible to build blockchain applications, known also as decentralized applications (or "dApps" for short) in native Python? Blockchain development has traditionally required learning specialized languages, creating a barrier for many developers… until now. AlgoKit , an all-in-one development toolkit for Algorand, enables developers to build blockchain applications in pure Python. This article will walk you through the benefits of building blockchain applications, why Python is an ideal choice for dApp development, how to set up your blockchain development environment, and how to start building secure blockchain applications in native Python.  Why build blockchain applications?  Blockchain application development goes far beyond creating a decentralized database and peer-to-peer transactions. It unlocks a new level of trust, security, and efficiency for various applications. Guarantee tamper-proof records: Blockchain creates an immutable and transparent ledge

A new Rust-based information stealer malware called Fickle Stealer has been observed being delivered via multiple attack chains with the goal of harvesting sensitive information from compromised hosts. Fortinet FortiGuard Labs said it's aware of four different distribution methods -- namely VBA dropper, VBA downloader, link downloader, and executable downloader -- with some of them using a PowerShell script to bypass User Account Control (UAC) and execute Fickle Stealer. The PowerShell script ("bypass.ps1" or "u.ps1") is also designed to periodically send information about the victim, including country, city, IP address, operating system version, computer name, and username to a Telegram bot controlled by the attacker. The stealer payload, which is protected using a packer, runs a series of anti-analysis checks to determine if it's running in a sandbox or a virtual machine environment, following which it beacons out to a remote server to exfiltrate da

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious Python package uploaded to the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that's designed to deliver an information stealer called Lumma (aka LummaC2). The package in question is crytic-compilers, a typosquatted version of a legitimate library named crytic-compile . The rogue package was downloaded 441 times before it was taken down by PyPI maintainers. "The counterfeit library is interesting in that, in addition [to] being named after the legitimate Python utility, 'crytic-compile,' it aligns its version numbers with the real library," Sonatype security researcher Ax Sharma said . "Whereas the real library's latest version stops at 0.3.7, the counterfeit 'crytic-compilers' version picks up right here, and ends at 0.3.11 — giving off the impression that this is a newer version of the component." In a further attempt to keep up the ruse, some versions of crytic-compilers (e.g., 0.3.9) we

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a tool referred to as  AndroxGh0st  that's used to target Laravel applications and steal sensitive data. "It works by scanning and taking out important information from .env files, revealing login details linked to AWS and Twilio," Juniper Threat Labs researcher Kashinath T Pattan  said . "Classified as an SMTP cracker, it exploits SMTP using various strategies such as credential exploitation, web shell deployment, and vulnerability scanning." AndroxGh0st has been detected in the wild since at least 2022, with threat actors leveraging it to access Laravel environment files and steal credentials for various cloud-based applications like Amazon Web Services (AWS), SendGrid, and Twilio. Attack chains involving the Python malware are known to exploit known security flaws in Apache HTTP Server, Laravel Framework, and PHPUnit to gain initial access and for privilege escalation and persistence. Earlier this January, U

A set of fake npm packages discovered on the Node.js repository has been found to share ties with North Korean state-sponsored actors, new findings from Phylum show. The packages are named execution-time-async, data-time-utils, login-time-utils, mongodb-connection-utils, and mongodb-execution-utils. One of the packages in question,  execution-time-async , masquerades as its legitimate counterpart  execution-time , a library with more than 27,000 weekly downloads. Execution-time is a Node.js utility used to measure execution time in code. It "actually installs several malicious scripts including a cryptocurrency and credential stealer," Phylum  said , describing the campaign as a software supply chain attack targeting developers. The package was  downloaded 302 times  since February 4, 2024, before being taken down. In an interesting twist, the threat actors made efforts to conceal the obfuscated malicious code in a test file, which is designed to fetch next-stage payloa

Cybersecurity researchers have identified a set of 116 malicious packages on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that are designed to infect Windows and Linux systems with a custom backdoor. "In some cases, the final payload is a variant of the infamous  W4SP Stealer , or a simple clipboard monitor to steal cryptocurrency, or both," ESET researchers Marc-Etienne M.Léveillé and Rene Holt  said  in a report published earlier this week. The  packages  are estimated to have been downloaded over 10,000 times since May 2023. The threat actors behind the activity have been observed using three techniques to bundle malicious code into Python packages, namely via a test.py script, embedding PowerShell in setup.py file, and incorporating it in obfuscated form in the  __init__.py file . Irrespective of the method used, the end goal of the campaign is to compromise the targeted host with malware, primarily a backdoor capable of remote command execution, data exfiltration, an

A phishing campaign has been observed delivering an information stealer malware called  MrAnon Stealer  to unsuspecting victims via seemingly benign booking-themed PDF lures. "This malware is a Python-based information stealer compressed with cx-Freeze to evade detection," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Cara Lin  said . "MrAnon Stealer steals its victims' credentials, system information, browser sessions, and cryptocurrency extensions." There is evidence to suggest that Germany is the primary target of the attack as of November 2023, owing to the number of times the downloader URL hosting the payload has been queried. Masquerading as a company looking to book hotel rooms, the phishing email bears a PDF file that, upon opening, activates the infection by prompting the recipient to download an updated version of Adobe Flash. Doing so results in the execution of .NET executables and PowerShell scripts to ultimately run a pernicious Python script, which i

A new set of malicious Python packages has slithered their way to the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository with the ultimate aim of stealing sensitive information from compromised developer systems. The packages masquerade as seemingly innocuous obfuscation tools, but harbor a piece of malware called  BlazeStealer , Checkmarx said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "[BlazeStealer] retrieves an additional malicious script from an external source, enabling a Discord bot that gives attackers complete control over the victim's computer," security researcher Yehuda Gelb said. The campaign, which commenced in January 2023, entails a total of eight packages named Pyobftoexe, Pyobfusfile, Pyobfexecute, Pyobfpremium, Pyobflite, Pyobfadvance, Pyobfuse, and pyobfgood, the last of which was published in October.  These modules come with setup.py and init.py files that are designed to retrieve a Python script hosted on transfer[.]sh, which gets executed immediately upon

A new  malvertising campaign  has been observed capitalizing on a compromised website to promote spurious versions of PyCharm on Google search results by leveraging Dynamic Search Ads. "Unbeknownst to the site owner, one of their ads was automatically created to promote a popular program for Python developers, and visible to people doing a Google search for it," Jérôme Segura, director of threat intelligence at Malwarebytes,  said  in a report. "Victims who clicked on the ad were taken to a hacked web page with a link to download the application, which turned out to install over a dozen different pieces of malware instead." The infected website in question is an unnamed online portal that specializes in wedding planning, which had been injected with malware to serve bogus links to the PyCharm software. The execution of the PyCharm installer results in the deployment of several stealer and loader families, such as Amadey, PrivateLoader, RedLine, Stealc, and Vid

A malicious package hosted on the NuGet package manager for the .NET Framework has been found to deliver a remote access trojan called SeroXen RAT. The package, named Pathoschild.Stardew.Mod.Build.Config and published by a user named  Disti , is a typosquat of a legitimate package called  Pathoschild.Stardew.ModBuildConfig , software supply chain security firm Phylum  said  in a report today. While the real package has received nearly 79,000 downloads to date, the malicious variant is said to have artificially inflated its download count after being published on October 6, 2023, to surpass 100,000 downloads. The profile behind the package has published six other packages that have attracted no less than 2.1 million downloads cumulatively, four of which masquerade as libraries for various crypto services like Kraken, KuCoin, Solana, and Monero, but are also designed to deploy SeroXen RAT. The attack chain is initiated during installation of the package by means of a tools/init.ps1