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Two malicious packages discovered in the npm package repository have been found to conceal an open source information stealer malware called  TurkoRat . The packages – named nodejs-encrypt-agent and nodejs-cookie-proxy-agent – were collectively downloaded approximately 1,200 times and were available for more than two months before they were identified and taken down. ReversingLabs, which broke down the details of the campaign, described TurkoRat as an information stealer capable of harvesting sensitive information such as login credentials, website cookies, and data from cryptocurrency wallets.  While nodejs-encrypt-agent came fitted with the malware inside, nodejs-cookie-proxy-agent was found to disguise the trojan as a dependency under the name axios-proxy. nodejs-encrypt-agent was also engineered to masquerade as another legitimate npm module known as  agent-base , which has been downloaded over 25 million times to date. The list of the rogue packages and their a...

The npm registry for the Node.js JavaScript runtime environment is susceptible to what's called a  manifest confusion  attack that could potentially allow threat actors to conceal malware in project dependencies or perform arbitrary script execution during installation. "A npm package's manifest is published independently from its tarball," Darcy Clarke, a former GitHub and npm engineering manager,  said  in a technical write-up published last week. "Manifests are never fully validated against the tarball's contents." "The ecosystem has broadly assumed the contents of the manifest and tarball are consistent," Clarke added. The problem, at its core, stems from the fact that the manifest and package metadata are decoupled and that they are never cross-referenced against one another, thereby leading to unexpected behavior and misuse when there is a mismatch. As a result, a threat actor could exploit this loophole to publish a module with a ma...

Fixing indirect vulnerabilities is one of those complex, tedious and, quite frankly, boring tasks that no one really wants to touch. No one except for  Debricked , it seems. Sure, there are lots of ways to do it manually, but can it be done automatically with minimal risk of breaking changes? The Debricked team decided to find out.  A forest full of fragile trees So, where do you even start? Firstly, there needs to be a way to fix the vulnerability, which, for indirect dependencies, is no walk in the park. Secondly, it needs to be done in a safe way, or, without anything breaking.  You see, indirect dependencies are introduced deep down the dependency tree and it's very tricky to get to the exact version you want. As Debricked's Head of R&D once put it, " You are turning the knobs by playing around with your direct dependencies and praying to Torvalds that the correct indirect packages are resolved. When Torvalds is in your favour, you have to sacrifice some clou...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious package on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that masquerades as a seemingly harmless Discord-related utility but incorporates a remote access trojan. The package in question is discordpydebug , which was uploaded to PyPI on March 21, 2022. It has been downloaded 11,574 times and continues to be available on the open-source registry. Interestingly, the package has not received any update since then. "At first glance, it appeared to be a simple utility aimed at developers working on Discord bots using the Discord.py library," the Socket Research Team said . "However, the package concealed a fully functional remote access trojan (RAT)." The package, once installed, contacts an external server ("backstabprotection.jamesx123.repl[.]co"), and includes features to read and write arbitrary files based on commands, readfile or writefile, received from the server. The RAT also supports the ability...

Every week, the cyber world reminds us that silence doesn't mean safety. Attacks often begin quietly — one unpatched flaw, one overlooked credential, one backup left unencrypted. By the time alarms sound, the damage is done. This week's edition looks at how attackers are changing the game — linking different flaws, working together across borders, and even turning trusted tools into weapons. From major software bugs to AI abuse and new phishing tricks, each story shows how fast the threat landscape is shifting and why security needs to move just as quickly. ⚡ Threat of the Week Dozens of Orgs Impacted by Exploitation of Oracle EBS Flaw — Dozens of organizations may have been impacted following the zero-day exploitation of a security flaw in Oracle's E-Business Suite (EBS) software since August 9, 2025, according to Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) and Mandiant. The activity, which bears some hallmarks associated with the Cl0p ransomware crew, is assessed to have fashio...

Three additional rogue Python packages have been discovered in the Package Index (PyPI) repository as part of an ongoing malicious software supply chain campaign called  VMConnect , with signs pointing to the involvement of North Korean state-sponsored threat actors. The  findings  come from ReversingLabs, which detected the packages tablediter, request-plus, and requestspro. First disclosed at the start of the month by the company and Sonatype,  VMConnect  refers to a collection of Python packages that mimic popular open-source Python tools to download an unknown second-stage malware. The latest tranche is no different, with ReversingLabs noting that the bad actors are disguising their packages and making them appear trustworthy by using typosquatting techniques to impersonate prettytable and requests and confuse developers. The nefarious code within tablediter is designed to run in an endless execution loop in which a remote server is polled periodically ...

Cybersecurity researchers have found that entry points could be abused across multiple programming ecosystems like PyPI, npm, Ruby Gems, NuGet, Dart Pub, and Rust Crates to stage software supply chain attacks. "Attackers can leverage these entry points to execute malicious code when specific commands are run, posing a widespread risk in the open-source landscape," Checkmarx researchers Yehuda Gelb and Elad Rapaport said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The software supply chain security company noted that entry-point attacks offer threat actors a more sneaky and persistent method of compromising systems in a manner that can bypass traditional security defenses. Entry points in a programming language like Python refer to a packaging mechanism that allows developers to expose certain functionality as a command-line wrapper (aka console_scripts). Alternatively, they can also serve to load plugins that augment a package's features. Checkmarx noted that while en...

Ever wonder what happens when attackers don't break the rules—they just follow them better than we do? When systems work exactly as they're built to, but that "by design" behavior quietly opens the door to risk? This week brings stories that make you stop and rethink what's truly under control. It's not always about a broken firewall or missed patch—it's about the small choices, default settings, and shortcuts that feel harmless until they're not. The real surprise? Sometimes the threat doesn't come from outside—it's baked right into how things are set up. Dive in to see what's quietly shaping today's security challenges. ⚡ Threat of the Week FBI Warns of Scattered Spider's on Airlines — The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned of a new set of attacks mounted by the notorious cybercrime group Scattered Spider targeting the airline sector using sophisticated social engineering techniques to obtain initial access. Cybersecurity vendors Palo Alto Networks Unit 4...

Today, every unpatched system, leaked password, and overlooked plugin is a doorway for attackers. Supply chains stretch deep into the code we trust, and malware hides not just in shady apps — but in job offers, hardware, and cloud services we rely on every day. Hackers don't need sophisticated exploits anymore. Sometimes, your credentials and a little social engineering are enough. This week, we trace how simple oversights turn into major breaches — and the silent threats most companies still underestimate. Let's dive in. ⚡ Threat of the Week UNC5221 Exploits New Ivanti Flaw to Drop Malware — The China-nexus cyber espionage group tracked as UNC5221 exploited a now-patched flaw in Ivanti Connect Secure, CVE-2025-22457 (CVSS score: 9.0), to deliver an in-memory dropper called TRAILBLAZE, a passive backdoor codenamed BRUSHFIRE, and the SPAWN malware suite. The vulnerability was originally patched by Ivanti on February 11, 2025, indicating that the threat actors studied the patch a...