Feb 12, 2024The Hacker NewsInfrastructure 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 authentication, authorization, general capabilities, and command-line interface (CLI) tooling –

• Level 0 – Having very little security maturity.
• Level 1 – Having basic security maturity, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and allowing security researchers to report vulnerabilities
• Level 2 – Having moderate security, which includes actions like requiring MFA for critical packages and warning users of known security vulnerabilities
• Level 3 – Having advanced security, which requires MFA for all maintainers and supports build provenance for packages

All package management ecosystems should be working towards at least Level 1, the framework authors Jack Cable and Zach Steindler note.

The ultimate objective is to allow package repositories to self-assess their security maturity and formulate a plan to bolster their guardrails over time in the form of security improvements.

“Security threats change over time, as do the security capabilities that address those threats,” OpenSSF said. “Our goal is to help package repositories more quickly deliver the security capabilities that best help strengthen the security of their ecosystems.”

The development comes as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) warned of security risks arising as a result of using open-source software for maintaining patient records, inventory management, prescriptions, and billing.

“While open-source software is the bedrock of modern software development, it is also often the weakest link in the software supply chain,” it said in a threat brief published in December 2023.

Dec 14, 2023NewsroomMalware / Supply Chain Attack

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, and taking screenshots. The backdoor module is implemented in Python for Windows and in Go for Linux.

Alternately, the attack chains also culminate in the deployment of W4SP Stealer or a clipper malware designed to keep close tabs on a victim’s clipboard activity and swapping the original wallet address, if present, with an attacker-controlled address.

The development is the latest in a wave of compromised Python packages attackers have released to poison the open-source ecosystem and distribute a medley of malware for supply chain attacks.

It’s also the newest addition to a steady stream of bogus PyPI packages that have acted as a stealthy channel for distributing stealer malware. In May 2023, ESET revealed another cluster of libraries that were engineered to propagate Sordeal Stealer, which borrows its features from W4SP Stealer.

Then, last month, malicious packages masquerading as seemingly innocuous obfuscation tools were found to deploy a stealer malware codenamed BlazeStealer.

“Python developers should thoroughly vet the code they download, especially checking for these techniques, before installing it on their systems,” the researchers cautioned.

The disclosure also follows the discovery of npm packages that were found targeting an unnamed financial institution as part of an “advanced adversary simulation exercise.” The names of the modules, which contained an encrypted blob, have been withheld to protect the identity of the organization.

“This decrypted payload contains an embedded binary that cleverly exfiltrates user credentials to a Microsoft Teams webhook that is internal to the target company in question,” software supply chain security firm Phylum disclosed last week.