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First Self-Propagating Worm Using Invisible Code Hits OpenVSX and VS Code

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Re: First Self-Propagating Worm Using Invisible Code Hits OpenVSX and VS Code

#31

Post by h4ck_th3_pl4n3t »

moffkalast wrote: post #16
kulahan wrote: post #2

For anyone else curious WTH “invisible code” is… > invisible Unicode characters that make malicious code literally disappear from code editors.

Makes you wonder why unicode has invisible characters in the first place and why a compiler would interpret them at all.

It's not the compiler.

It's JavaScript and its fucked up UTF-16 strings.

UTF-16 should have been UTF-8 for a variety of reasons, and I thought we have learned from the Effective power لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣh ॣ ॣ 冗 incident.

Re: First Self-Propagating Worm Using Invisible Code Hits OpenVSX and VS Code

#33

Post by wunderwuzzi23 »

nawgz wrote: post #4

Cool write-up. Seems pretty unintuitive to me that Unicode would allow someone to serialize normal code as invisible characters and that something like an IDE or a git diff has never been hardened against that at all. In my mind it's one thing to let a string control whitespace a bit versus having the ability to write any string in a non-renderable format. Can anyone point me to some more information about why this c…

It gets even worse with LLMs and agents.

Many LLMs can interpret invisible Unicode Tag characters as instructions and follow them (eg invisible comment or text in a GitHub issue).

I wrote about this a few times, here a recent example with Google Jules: https://embracethered.com/blog/posts/2025/google-jules-invis...

Re: First Self-Propagating Worm Using Invisible Code Hits OpenVSX and VS Code

#34

Post by r_lee »

burkaman wrote: post #23
TheServitor wrote: post #13

"Here's the thing - this technique completely breaks traditional code review. You can't spot what you can't see. GitHub's diff view? Shows nothing suspicious. Your IDE's syntax highlighting? All clear. Manual code inspection? Everything looks normal. The invisible code technique isn't just clever - it's a fundamental break in our security model. We've built entire systems around the assumption that humans can review…

Yeah the whole article is awful to read. Everything the LLM added is completely useless fluff, sometimes misleading, and always painful to get through.

Alright, no fluff. Only real talk. It's not just a great argument--it's the truth. You're absolutely right.

Re: First Self-Propagating Worm Using Invisible Code Hits OpenVSX and VS Code

#36

Post by rezonant »

wrs wrote: post #18

That's clever, but if your code review missed the perfectly visible line eval(atob(decodedString)) then they didn't really need invisible characters to get past you, did they?

Ahh but what if you are code reviewing a malware package already? Then this would be entirely normal!

Re: First Self-Propagating Worm Using Invisible Code Hits OpenVSX and VS Code

#37

Post by rezonant »

fxtentacle wrote: post #3

I call bullshit on this: "The attacker is using a public blockchain - immutable, decentralized, impossible to take down - as their C2 server." "There's no hosting provider to contact, no registrar to pressure, no infrastructure to shut down. The Solana blockchain just... exists. " Yes, but you still need to connect to it. Blocking access to *.solana.com is enough to stop the trojan from accessing its 2nd stage. "Conn…

> There is, you just have to accept that Solana goes down with it.

And nothing of value was lost.

Re: First Self-Propagating Worm Using Invisible Code Hits OpenVSX and VS Code

#40

Post by amingilani »

h4ck_th3_pl4n3t wrote: post #31
moffkalast wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes you wonder why unicode has invisible characters in the first place and why a compiler would interpret them at all.

It's not the compiler. It's JavaScript and its fucked up UTF-16 strings. UTF-16 should have been UTF-8 for a variety of reasons, and I thought we have learned from the Effective power لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣh ॣ ॣ 冗 incident.

The what incident? Can you elaborate?

Edit: Here’s the incident-https://www.theregister.com/2015/05/27/text_message_unicode_...

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