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Dozens of malicious PyPI packages discovered targeting developers

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Re: Dozens of malicious PyPI packages discovered targeting developers

#151

Post by nomdep »

RockRobotRock wrote: post #122
jorvi wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what their standard for 'malicious' is, but they nuked Popcorn Time and Butter (the technological core without the actual piratey bits) from orbit until there was a huge amount of backlash.

I'm not even asking them to deal with the problem "systemically" or "at scale". I just want them to respond when I am trying to stop an active criminal campaign whose goal is to steal money and cryptocurrency from people.

Talk to the FBI or any authorities, then.

I despise the idea of GitHub removing any code just because YOU (anyone) think they are criminals.

Re: Dozens of malicious PyPI packages discovered targeting developers

#153

Post by ashishbijlani »

sigg3 wrote: post #7

It's using base64 encoded strings to deliver the initial stage. Can this be avoided/flagged more easily if by adding a scan of statements featuring base64 or import?

This is exactly what Packj [1] scans packages for (30+ such risky attributes). Many packages will use base64 for benign reasons, this is why no fully-automated tool could be 100% accurate.

Manual auditing is impractical, but Packj can quickly point out if a package accesses sensitive files (e.g., SSH keys), spawns shell, exfiltrates data, is abandoned, lacks 2FA, etc. Alerts could be commented out if don't apply.

1. https://github.com/ossillate-inc/packj

Disclaimer: I developed this.

Re: Dozens of malicious PyPI packages discovered targeting developers

#154

Post by plugin-baby »

heleninboodler wrote: post #144

This type of stuff is one reason I like vendoring all my deps in golang. You have to be very explicit about updating dependencies, which can be a big hassle, but you're required to do a git commit of all the changes, which gives you a good time to actually browse through the diffs. If you update dependencies incrementally, it's not even that big a job. Of course, this doesn't guarantee I won't miss any malicious code…

> And why is nodejs so much more dependency-happy than python?

Could it be that nodejs has implemented package management more consistently and conveniently than other languages/platforms?

Re: Dozens of malicious PyPI packages discovered targeting developers

#156

Post by actually_a_dog »

lovelearning wrote: post #47

In a previous HN discussion on the topic of rogue Python packages, readers had suggested bubblewrap and firejail for sandboxing. They limit the access a script and its packages have to your filesystem and network. I think that's the better approach - just assume all packages are malicious by default. Can't rely on scanners because of the large number of packages and attacks.

I agree, "assume unknown, unaudited packages are malicious" is the ideal stance. However, I would say that a simple scanning approach could probably take you pretty far. For instance, if you're not using the requests module or the socket module, chances are pretty good there's no data exfiltration going on.

It's absolutely not a foolproof approach, but it is a lightweight layer that can be used in a "defense in depth" approach.

Re: Dozens of malicious PyPI packages discovered targeting developers

#157

Post by YetAnotherNick »

jerpint wrote: post #137

I wonder why we can’t have pip packages be published by username or organization, like pip install google/tensorflow It would significantly reduce the attack space

It gives false sense of security. What about google_official/tensorflow

Re: Dozens of malicious PyPI packages discovered targeting developers

#158

Post by RockRobotRock »

nomdep wrote: post #151
RockRobotRock wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not even asking them to deal with the problem "systemically" or "at scale". I just want them to respond when I am trying to stop an active criminal campaign whose goal is to steal money and cryptocurrency from people.

Talk to the FBI or any authorities, then. I despise the idea of GitHub removing any code just because YOU (anyone) think they are criminals.

Read mr_mitm's comment. I have no problem with potentially malicious code being hosted on GitHub, I think it's a good thing. Using GitHub's infrastructure for your theft campaign is clearly not okay.

Re: Dozens of malicious PyPI packages discovered targeting developers

#159

Post by augusto-moura »

heleninboodler wrote: post #144

This type of stuff is one reason I like vendoring all my deps in golang. You have to be very explicit about updating dependencies, which can be a big hassle, but you're required to do a git commit of all the changes, which gives you a good time to actually browse through the diffs. If you update dependencies incrementally, it's not even that big a job. Of course, this doesn't guarantee I won't miss any malicious code…

The problem is the tree of dependencies you might check. Sure you can check the changes in a direct dependency, but when that dependency updates a few others and those update a few others, the number of lines you need to read grow very quickly

Re: Dozens of malicious PyPI packages discovered targeting developers

#160

Post by Scarblac »

plugin-baby wrote: post #154
heleninboodler wrote: post #144

This type of stuff is one reason I like vendoring all my deps in golang. You have to be very explicit about updating dependencies, which can be a big hassle, but you're required to do a git commit of all the changes, which gives you a good time to actually browse through the diffs. If you update dependencies incrementally, it's not even that big a job. Of course, this doesn't guarantee I won't miss any malicious code…

> And why is nodejs so much more dependency-happy than python? Could it be that nodejs has implemented package management more consistently and conveniently than other languages/platforms?

That's one thing, the other is the almost complete absence of a standard library.
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