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Category — Software Supply Chain
Ultralytics AI Library Compromised: Cryptocurrency Miner Found in PyPI Versions

Ultralytics AI Library Compromised: Cryptocurrency Miner Found in PyPI Versions

Dec 07, 2024 Supply Chain Attack / Cryptocurrency
In yet another software supply chain attack, it has come to light that two versions of a popular Python artificial intelligence (AI) library named ultralytics were compromised to deliver a cryptocurrency miner. The versions, 8.3.41 and 8.3.42, have since been removed from the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository. A subsequently released version has introduced a security fix that "ensures secure publication workflow for the Ultralytics package." The project maintainer, Glenn Jocher, confirmed on GitHub that the two versions were infected by malicious code injection in the PyPI deployment workflow after reports emerged that installing the library led to a drastic spike in CPU usage , a telltale sign of cryptocurrency mining. The most notable aspect of the attack is that bad actors managed to compromise the build environment related to the project to insert unauthorized modifications after the completion of the code review step, thus leading to a discrepancy in the so...
PyPI Python Library "aiocpa" Found Exfiltrating Crypto Keys via Telegram Bot

PyPI Python Library "aiocpa" Found Exfiltrating Crypto Keys via Telegram Bot

Nov 25, 2024 Software Supply Chain / Malware
The administrators of the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository have quarantined the package " aiocpa " following a new update that included malicious code to exfiltrate private keys via Telegram. The package in question is described as a synchronous and asynchronous Crypto Pay API client. The package, originally released in September 2024, has been downloaded 12,100 times to date. By putting the Python library in quarantine, it prevents further installation by clients and cannot be modified by its maintainers.  Cybersecurity outfit Phylum, which shared details of the software supply chain attack last week, said the author of the package published the malicious update to PyPI, while keeping the library's GitHub repository clean in an attempt to evade detection. It's currently not clear if the original developer was behind the rogue update or if their credentials were compromised by a different threat actor. Signs of malicious activity were first spotted i...
How AI Is Transforming IAM and Identity Security

How AI Is Transforming IAM and Identity Security

Nov 15, 2024Machine Learning / Identity Security
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has begun revolutionizing Identity Access Management (IAM), reshaping how cybersecurity is approached in this crucial field. Leveraging AI in IAM is about tapping into its analytical capabilities to monitor access patterns and identify anomalies that could signal a potential security breach. The focus has expanded beyond merely managing human identities — now, autonomous systems, APIs, and connected devices also fall within the realm of AI-driven IAM, creating a dynamic security ecosystem that adapts and evolves in response to sophisticated cyber threats. The Role of AI and Machine Learning in IAM AI and machine learning (ML) are creating a more robust, proactive IAM system that continuously learns from the environment to enhance security. Let's explore how AI impacts key IAM components: Intelligent Monitoring and Anomaly Detection AI enables continuous monitoring of both human and non-human identities , including APIs, service acc...
GitHub Actions Vulnerable to Typosquatting, Exposing Developers to Hidden Malicious Code

GitHub Actions Vulnerable to Typosquatting, Exposing Developers to Hidden Malicious Code

Sep 06, 2024 Software Security / Hacking
Threat actors have long leveraged typosquatting as a means to trick unsuspecting users into visiting malicious websites or downloading booby-trapped software and packages. These attacks typically involve registering domains or packages with names slightly altered from their legitimate counterparts (e.g., goog1e.com vs. google.com). Adversaries targeting open-source repositories across platforms have relied on developers making typing errors to initiate software supply chain attacks through PyPI, npm, Maven Central, NuGet, RubyGems, and Crate. The latest findings from cloud security firm Orca show that even GitHub Actions , a continuous integration and continuous delivery ( CI/CD ) platform, is not immune from the threat. "If developers make a typo in their GitHub action that matches a typosquatter's action, applications could be made to run malicious code without the developer even realizing," security researcher Ofir Yakobi said in a report shared with The Ha...
cyber security

Creating, Managing and Securing Non-Human Identities

websitePermisoCybersecurity / Identity Security
A new class of identities has emerged alongside traditional human users: non-human identities (NHIs). Permiso Security's new eBook details everything you need to know about managing and securing non-human identities, and strategies to unify identity security without compromising agility.
North Korean Hackers Targets Job Seekers with Fake FreeConference App

North Korean Hackers Targets Job Seekers with Fake FreeConference App

Sep 04, 2024 Cryptocurrency / Malware
North Korean threat actors have leveraged a fake Windows video conferencing application impersonating FreeConference.com to backdoor developer systems as part of an ongoing financially-driven campaign dubbed Contagious Interview. The new attack wave, spotted by Singaporean company Group-IB in mid-August 2024, is yet another indication that the activity is also leveraging native installers for Windows and Apple macOS to deliver malware. Contagious Interview, also tracked as DEV#POPPER, is a malicious campaign orchestrated by a North Korean threat actor tracked by CrowdStrike under the moniker Famous Chollima. The attack chains begin with a fictitious job interview, tricking job seekers into downloading and running a Node.js project that contains the BeaverTail downloader malware, which in turn delivers InvisibleFerret, a cross-platform Python backdoor that's equipped with remote control, keylogging, and browser stealing capabilities. Some iterations of BeaverTail, which also...
Researchers Find Over 22,000 Removed PyPI Packages at Risk of Revival Hijack

Researchers Find Over 22,000 Removed PyPI Packages at Risk of Revival Hijack

Sep 04, 2024
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 ...
North Korean Hackers Target Developers with Malicious npm Packages

North Korean Hackers Target Developers with Malicious npm Packages

Aug 30, 2024 Cryptocurrency / Malware
Threat actors with ties to North Korea have been observed publishing a set of malicious packages to the npm registry, indicating "coordinated and relentless" efforts to target developers with malware and steal cryptocurrency assets. The latest wave, which was observed between August 12 and 27, 2024, involved packages named temp-etherscan-api, ethersscan-api, telegram-con, helmet-validate, and qq-console. "Behaviors in this campaign lead us to believe that qq-console is attributable to the North Korean campaign known as 'Contagious Interview,'" software supply chain security firm Phylum said . Contagious Interview refers to an ongoing campaign that seeks to compromise software developers with information stealing malware as part of a purported job interview process that involves tricking them into downloading bogus npm packages or fake installers for video conferencing software such as MiroTalk hosted on decoy websites. The end goal of the attacks is to...
Researchers Identify Over 20 Supply Chain Vulnerabilities in MLOps Platforms

Researchers Identify Over 20 Supply Chain Vulnerabilities in MLOps Platforms

Aug 26, 2024 ML Security / Artificial Intelligence
Cybersecurity researchers are warning about the security risks in the machine learning (ML) software supply chain following the discovery of more than 20 vulnerabilities that could be exploited to target MLOps platforms. These vulnerabilities, which are described as inherent- and implementation-based flaws, could have severe consequences, ranging from arbitrary code execution to loading malicious datasets. MLOps platforms offer the ability to design and execute an ML model pipeline, with a model registry acting as a repository used to store and version-trained ML models. These models can then be embedded within an application or allow other clients to query them using an API (aka model-as-a-service). "Inherent vulnerabilities are vulnerabilities that are caused by the underlying formats and processes used in the target technology," JFrog researchers said in a detailed report. Some examples of inherent vulnerabilities include abusing ML models to run code of the attacker...
North Korean Hackers Update BeaverTail Malware to Target MacOS Users

North Korean Hackers Update BeaverTail Malware to Target MacOS Users

Jul 17, 2024 Cyber Espionage / Cryptocurrency
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an updated variant of a known stealer malware that attackers affiliated with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have delivered as part of prior cyber espionage campaigns targeting job seekers. The artifact in question is an Apple macOS disk image (DMG) file named "MiroTalk.dmg" that mimics the legitimate video call service of the same name, but, in reality, serves as a conduit to deliver a native version of BeaverTail, security researcher Patrick Wardle said . BeaverTail refers to a JavaScript stealer malware that was first documented by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 in November 2023 as part of a campaign dubbed Contagious Interview that aims to infect software developers with malware through a supposed job interview process. Securonix is tracking the same activity under the moniker DEV#POPPER . Besides siphoning sensitive information from web browsers and crypto wallets, the malware is capable of delivering addi...
Five Core Tenets Of Highly Effective DevSecOps Practices

Five Core Tenets Of Highly Effective DevSecOps Practices

May 21, 2024 DevSecOps / Artificial Intelligence
One of the enduring challenges of building modern applications is to make them more secure without disrupting high-velocity DevOps processes or degrading the developer experience. Today's cyber threat landscape is rife with sophisticated attacks aimed at all different parts of the software supply chain and the urgency for software-producing organizations to adopt DevSecOps practices that deeply integrate security throughout the software development life cycle has never been greater.  However, HOW organizations go about it is of critical importance. For example, locking down the development platform, instituting exhaustive code reviews, and enforcing heavyweight approval processes may improve the security posture of pipelines and code, but don't count on applications teams to operate fluidly enough to innovate. The same goes for application security testing; uncovering a mountain of vulnerabilities does little good if developers have inadequate time or guidance to fix them. At a ...
CISA and OpenSSF Release Framework for Package Repository Security

CISA and OpenSSF Release Framework for Package Repository Security

Feb 12, 2024 Infrastructure Security / Software Supply Chain
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced that it's partnering with the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) Securing Software Repositories Working Group to publish a new framework to secure package repositories. Called the  Principles for Package Repository Security , the framework  aims  to establish a set of foundational rules for package managers and further harden open-source software ecosystems. "Package repositories are at a critical point in the open-source ecosystem to help prevent or mitigate such attacks," OpenSSF  said . "Even simple actions like having a documented account recovery policy can lead to robust security improvements. At the same time, capabilities must be balanced with resource constraints of package repositories, many of which are operated by non-profit organizations." Notably, the principles lay out four security maturity levels for package repositories across four categories of authenticati...
Three Ways To Supercharge Your Software Supply Chain Security

Three Ways To Supercharge Your Software Supply Chain Security

Jan 04, 2024 Ethical Hacking / Vulnerability Assessment
Section four of the " Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity " introduced a lot of people in tech to the concept of a "Software Supply Chain" and securing it. If you make software and ever hope to sell it to one or more federal agencies, you  have  to pay attention to this. Even if you never plan to sell to a government, understanding your Software Supply Chain and learning how to secure it will pay dividends in a stronger security footing and the benefits it provides. This article will look at three ways to supercharge your  Software Supply Chain Security . What is your Software Supply Chain? It's essentially everything that goes into building a piece of software: from the IDE in which the developer writes code, to the third-party dependencies, to the build systems and scripts, to the hardware and operating system on which it runs. Instabilities and vulnerabilities can be introduced, maliciously or not, from inception to deployment and even beyond....
CISA Urges Manufacturers Eliminate Default Passwords to Thwart Cyber Threats

CISA Urges Manufacturers Eliminate Default Passwords to Thwart Cyber Threats

Dec 18, 2023 Software Security / Vulnerability
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is  urging  manufacturers to get rid of default passwords on internet-exposed systems altogether, citing severe risks that could be exploited by malicious actors to gain initial access to, and move laterally within, organizations. In an alert published last week, the agency called out Iranian threat actors affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for exploiting operational technology devices with default passwords to gain access to critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. Default passwords  refer to factory default software configurations for embedded systems, devices, and appliances that are typically publicly documented and identical among all systems within a vendor's product line. As a result, threat actors could scan for internet-exposed endpoints using tools like Shodan and attempt to breach them through default passwords, often gaining root or administrative privileges to...
27 Malicious PyPI Packages with Thousands of Downloads Found Targeting IT Experts

27 Malicious PyPI Packages with Thousands of Downloads Found Targeting IT Experts

Nov 17, 2023 Software Supply Chain / API Security
An unknown threat actor has been observed publishing typosquat packages to the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository for nearly six months with an aim to deliver malware capable of gaining persistence, stealing sensitive data, and accessing cryptocurrency wallets for financial gain. The 27 packages, which masqueraded as popular legitimate Python libraries, attracted thousands of downloads, Checkmarx said in a new report. A majority of the downloads originated from the U.S., China, France, Hong Kong, Germany, Russia, Ireland, Singapore, the U.K., and Japan. "A defining characteristic of this attack was the utilization of steganography to hide a malicious payload within an innocent-looking image file, which increased the stealthiness of the attack," the software supply chain security firm  said . Some of the packages are pyefflorer, pyminor, pyowler, pystallerer, pystob, and pywool, the last of which was planted on May 13, 2023. A common denominator to these packages is t...
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