Malicious NPM Packages Target German Companies in Supply Chain Attack
May 11, 2022
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a number of malicious packages in the NPM registry specifically targeting a number of prominent media, logistics, and industrial firms based in Germany to carry out supply chain attacks . "Compared with most malware found in the NPM repository, this payload seems particularly dangerous: a highly-sophisticated, obfuscated piece of malware that acts as a backdoor and allows the attacker to take total control over the infected machine," researchers from JFrog said in a new report. The DevOps company said that evidence points to it being either the work of a sophisticated threat actor or a "very aggressive" penetration test. All the rogue packages, most of which have since been removed from the repository, have been traced to four "maintainers" - bertelsmannnpm, boschnodemodules, stihlnodemodules, and dbschenkernpm — indicating an attempt to impersonate legitimate firms like Bertelsmann, Bosch, Stihl, and DB Sc