Nobody should do 'npm install' or 'pip install' on their machine. Using a proper sandboxing( https://github.com/ashishb/amazing-sandbox ) regularly will drastically limit the blast radius of these attacks.
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Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
61–70 of 211 posts
Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft's open source projects the target of a supply chain attack and they decided to restrict access to understand and limit exposure ? Something a little more 'true' and less targetted?
Azure are able to be targets of supply chain attack because of the supply chain ecosystem that they still own . It's not really a supply chain when it's still yours.
> It's not really a supply chain when it's still yours.
I don't personally buy that, they offer a package manager in the form of nuget for example, if their products there are compromised, they're well withing normal reach to block THEIR packages, but why would they need to block the rest ?
Maybe I'm missing something dumb
Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
#63Nobody should do 'npm install' or 'pip install' on their machine. Using a proper sandboxing( https://github.com/ashishb/amazing-sandbox ) regularly will drastically limit the blast radius of these attacks.
> Nobody should do 'npm install' or 'pip install' on their machine. What alternative do you suggest? Do you mean not install outside a sandbox?
Download source. Extract. Move files to correct node_modules folder.
If your distribution requires more than this, then it's not really a module, or combines too many non-modular components, and should be distributed differently.
The ability for npm to run scripts on any level should be removed.
Then we can go back to worrying about namespacing issues.
Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
#64The phrasing of the title is loaded and the content phrases it as some kind of fault of open source. Then, which I find the most amusing, proceeds to blame MicroSlop for the attempted suuply chain attack, > Microsoft did not immediately provide the specific number of customers affected, when asked by TechCrunch. Yeah, because that's how open source works. Tech crunch doing hard work no not explain that. > This is Mic…
> > This is Microsoft’s second known breach over the past few weeks that has allowed hackers to compromise its open source projects, per Ars Technica. > I, like many others love to knock on Microslop when I can, but in this case they did the right thing. I've no idea what your problem with this sentence is. They have an organisational security problem, aided/demonstrated by lack of effort to effectively lockdown GitH…
> That this is a Microsoft problem that was present pre-AI is not up for debate. See https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-03/CSRBReviewO...
No argument from me, but what would you have them do in the immediate timeframe ?
Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
#65GitHub keeps on having problems a LOT in the last months.
Skynet is winning now.
Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
#66Please, someone explain how it's possible to add obfuscated file to so many repositories? Do they don't have any code reviews? Also, the title is misleading, setup adds config to be auto executed by people who work on the repo. They would have to use vscode/cursor/claude/gemini. People who use codex / opencode / other harnesses are safe I guess. Details: https://www.stepsecurity.io/blog/miasma-worm-hits-microsoft-...
> Do they don't have any code reviews?
I have a good friend that works for one of the giants(I can't say which one for obvious reasons but S&P 500). He's been working there for quite a while now, so far he hasn't seen what the project he works on looks like, has the repo cloned and knows what language is used but nothing beyond that. Everything is slopped together. His project is the authentication and authorization system for all the company products. In his own words "I hit Tab all day long and write 'this is intended' in the reviews, which are all ai, there is no human in the loop. This is what we are told to do by the CEO and CTO unironically. If something breaks, no one knows how any of this works since no one has seen the actual code. Our performance reviews are based on how many tokens we've used, not what we have done". I suspect this is the case in many companies now so it's not unreasonable to think that there are no actual code reviews.
Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
We are ever-faster approaching the Anti Singularity, the moment when everything "tech" implodes and progress screeches to a halt.
What if this is "The Great Filter?" [Ominous music plays in the background]
We've got a few candidates for that on the go and this is for sure one of them.
Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I argued for years that we had too few workers for our total project count and management argued that most projects were idle and so it was fine to have so many per worker. Welp.
I think web-based IDEs like GitHub Codespaces (but even VSCode with tunnels) is part of the solution because at the very least you can get an isolated dev environment per project. I've been advocating for this for as long as I remember. Unfortunately, most developers don't like them so it is a though sell.
Web-based IDEs like VSCode on github just had a 1-click github token stealing vulnerability: https://blog.ammaraskar.com/github-token-stealing/
You could argue this is probably on GitHub for creating a token here that gives blanket access to all repos vs a scoped token for just the repo.
Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
#69And we trust these people with the root CA cert in our Secure Boot?
What do you mean 'we'? :-)
Re: Microsoft's open source tools were hacked to steal passwords of AI developers
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Nobody should do 'npm install' or 'pip install' on their machine. What alternative do you suggest? Do you mean not install outside a sandbox?
Download source. Extract. Move files to correct node_modules folder. If your distribution requires more than this, then it's not really a module, or combines too many non-modular components, and should be distributed differently. The ability for npm to run scripts on any level should be removed. Then we can go back to worrying about namespacing issues.
If an attacker can infect the post-install script of an npm package, they can also infect the package source code itself. So if you ever run the project outside the sandbox, you will still get compromised.
It's like saying "I don't trust a software app with an installer, I just want a .zip with the binaries from the same source that I will run myself"