FOSS project attacks on Github, malware injected in forks ransomware Linux machines (mhouge.dk)
from ikidd@lemmy.world to linux@lemmy.ml on 16 Mar 21:09
https://lemmy.world/post/26942886

Apparently there’s a bunch of projects getting hit with this, fairly obscure ones though. Project gets forked, suddenly get a pile of stars more than the original, and then there’s a curl-bash pipe inserted into it that runs some ransomeware that encrypts ~/Documents.

About a dozen other projects linked in here from another developer (excuse the Reddit link): old.reddit.com/…/someone_copied_our_github_projec…

#linux

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superkret@feddit.org on 16 Mar 21:15 next collapse

lol, just checked. ~/Documents doesn’t even exist on my machine.

cralder@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 21:18 next collapse

Average arch user

oo1@lemmings.world on 16 Mar 22:34 collapse

oh oh, I’m a below average arch user. I suspect i copied most of my hoome from debian or something.

I’ll rename it to Dickuments as a security feature.

[deleted] on 16 Mar 23:39 collapse

.

ikidd@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 21:22 collapse

Me neither, I nuke the default freedesktop folders on an install because they clutter up my home folder. But I’d imagine we’re the exception.

Chodi_MacCunt@no.lastname.nz on 16 Mar 21:18 next collapse

use windows iif ytu dodn watn virus

Nino477@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 21:38 next collapse

Tru. With Windows defender 💪 i can downloat evry .exe from ze internetz. I currently installing Gta 6 early 😎

ikidd@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 21:47 next collapse

I’d rather have ass-cancer.

everett@lemmy.ml on 16 Mar 22:05 next collapse

Sounds legit, thank you.

pogmommy@lemmy.ml on 16 Mar 22:36 next collapse

You can’t get a virus if your computer’s already dependent on one!

sylver_dragon@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 22:36 next collapse

I tried that, I ended up with this weird “Windows 11” adware installed and couldn’t get rid of it. There was also a problem with odd programs and advertising showing up in my Start Menu, even after I removed them. Also, my settings would occasionally just change, without my knowledge or permission.

Aatube@kbin.melroy.org on 17 Mar 00:00 collapse

moar virus onn windows

just_another_person@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 21:19 next collapse

This isn’t really a supply chain attack. It’s more social engineering: fake users, forks, and non-verified code. They’re taking advantage of the fact that most people don’t use verified releases or packages code from open source projects.

GitHub is not compromised, nor sending unintended payloads.

ikidd@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 21:21 collapse

Many of the projects are backend dev tools, like the Atlas provider linked in the thread.

just_another_person@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 21:26 collapse

But that’s not a supply chain attack. If projects or platforms are compromised and THEN their code is used by normal means of ingestion of said project, that would be a supply chain attack.

These are unofficial channels created as forks of existing projects in an attempt to fool users into using these instead.

ikidd@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 21:49 collapse

OK, fair enough, I changed the title.

just_another_person@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 22:22 collapse

👍

thebardingreen@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz on 16 Mar 21:37 next collapse

Jokes on them, I don’t keep shit in ~/Documents, all my goodies are on a network share mounted at ~/Netstore

harsh3466@lemmy.ml on 16 Mar 21:39 next collapse

Hahaha. Was about to comment nearly the same thing. My NFS share has a different mount. ~/Documents is an empty directory

DaveX64@lemmy.ca on 16 Mar 21:55 collapse

I was going to say that too, ha!

MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 16 Mar 21:45 next collapse

It’s an interesting thing to think about, wouldn’t widespread desktop Linux malware be quite bad because of the lack of any AV/Malware detection typically used?

just_another_person@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 22:27 next collapse

Uhhhhh, there’s plenty of that being used. From the ground up. Security scanning out the wazzzz. Those are pattern-based scanners though, and this probably wouldn’t be detected because it’s a blob of binary junk with a script inside. GitHub should honestly put something on their storage backends to warn users, but that’s a whole ball of wax people probably don’t want to get into.

sylver_dragon@lemmy.world on 16 Mar 22:33 collapse

It depends on the environment. I’ve been in a couple of places which use Linux for various professional purposes. At one site, all systems with a network connection were required to have A/V, on-access scanning and regular system scans. So, even the Linux systems had a full A/V agent and we were in the process of rolling out EDR to all Linux based hosts when I left. That was a site where security tended to be prioritized, though much of it was also “checkbox security”. At another site, A/V didn’t really exist on Linux systems and they were basically black boxes on the network, with zero security oversight. Last I heard, that was finally starting to change and Linux hosts were getting the full A/V and EDR treatment. Though, that’s always a long process. I also see a similar level of complacency in “the cloud”. Devs spin random shit up, give it a public IP, set the VPS to a default allow and act like it’s somehow secure because, “it’s in the cloud”. Some of that will be Linux based. And in six months to a year, it’s woefully out of date, probably running software with known vulnerabilities, fully exposed to the internet and the dev who spun it up may or may not be with the company anymore. Also, since they were “agile”, the documentation for the system is filed under “lol, wut?”

Overall, I think Linux systems are a mixed bag. For a long time, they just weren’t targeted with normal malware. And this led to a lot of complacency. Most sites I have been at have had a few Linux systems kicking about; but, because they were “one off” systems and from a certain sense of invulnerability they were poorly updated and often lacked a secure baseline configuration. The whole “Linux doesn’t get malware” mantra was used to avoid security scrutiny. At the same time, Linux system do tend to default to a more secure configuration. You’re not going to get a BlueKeep type vulnerability from a default config. Still, it’s not hard for someone who doesn’t know any better to end up with a vulnerable system. And things like ransomware, password stealers, RATs or other basic attacks often run just fine in a user context. It’s only when the attacker needs to get root that things get harder.

In a way, I’d actually appreciate a wide scale, well publicized ransomware attack on Linux systems. First off, it would show that Linux is finally big enough for attackers to care about. Second, it would provide concrete proof as to why Linux systems should be given as much attention and centrally managed/secured in the Enterprise. I know everyone hates dealing with IT for provisioning systems, and the security software sucks balls; but, given the constant barrage of attacks, those sorts of things really are needed.

crystalwalrus@programming.dev on 16 Mar 22:09 next collapse

Another reason that star count is a terrible metric for quality / authenticity. Fake stars are a huge problem that not a lot of people take seriously.

Aatube@kbin.melroy.org on 17 Mar 00:01 next collapse

Finally, Linux is popular enough to get targeted by malware!

Sturgist@lemmy.ca on 19 Mar 12:28 collapse

Year of Linux wen? Now? Ples, B now?

phoenixz@lemmy.ca on 17 Mar 01:08 next collapse

Yay, finally Linux is being attacked!

And as expected it takes whole lot more than clicking on an email attachment

Always check before you curl download something!

racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml on 17 Mar 14:13 collapse

No. Feel free to download shit and even attempt to run shit. Chances are they won’t run because shits are compiled against glibc and my system is not.

lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 17 Mar 01:18 next collapse

…the fuck is that title? I got a headache trying to make sense of it.

ikidd@lemmy.world on 17 Mar 01:36 collapse

Yah, I read it afterwards and realized I’d verbed a noun. I’m not proud of it.

kurumin@linux.community on 17 Mar 07:17 collapse

Here in Lemmy you can edit titles

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works on 17 Mar 03:53 next collapse

I keep saying this curl bash pipe shit needs to stop.

Goun@lemmy.ml on 17 Mar 15:36 collapse

Yes, I agree, but then, what would be an alternative?

Store it into a file, chmod it and run it? git clone the repo and run a script from it? I don’t think any of those would be different, apart from having more steps most people won’t even check anything.

I don’t know if we can fix this while allowing people to run stuff they don’t understand on their machines. Maybe community curated scripts or something, know the people who does the stuff and only run stuff made by people you already know.

I think we’re running too fast, we need to chill down, idk.

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works on 17 Mar 20:41 collapse

Yes, I agree, but then, what would be an alternative?

Any package manager that allows for ways to verify the source. These shitty script|bash lines are doing all sorts of nutty shit on your system, and that’s ones that aren’t even malicious.

eager_eagle@lemmy.world on 17 Mar 05:37 next collapse

good time to not have a ~/Documents and keep backups encrypted off site

pinguinu@lemmygrad.ml on 17 Mar 08:52 next collapse

That simply wouldn’t work in non-english machines lmao

SirQuack@feddit.nl on 17 Mar 14:43 collapse

Maybe they’re using xdg-dirs? That might work, won’t it?

Goun@lemmy.ml on 17 Mar 15:30 collapse

Why the Documents folder tho? Who expects important stuff to be there?

Now all my Linux ISOs are gone, smh