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Hackers have compromised dozens of popular open source packages in an ongoing supply-chain attack

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Why This Matters

This ongoing supply-chain attack highlights the vulnerability of open source software, which forms the backbone of many modern applications. It underscores the urgent need for improved security measures to protect developers and end-users from malicious code injections that can lead to widespread data breaches and compromised systems.

Key Takeaways

In Brief

In an ongoing cyberattack, hackers have compromised several popular open source projects that software developers all over the world rely on.

On Tuesday, cybersecurity firms StepSecurity and SafeDep warned of the latest wave of supply-chain attacks, which aim to compromise developers of popular open source projects and use that access to plant malicious updates that are pushed to users downstream.

According to SafeDep, hackers took over the account of one developer and released over 630 malicious versions across 317 packages in about 20 minutes. The goal of the attack is to steal credentials for various services, including password managers, as a way to steal data and continue spreading the malware.

Among the packages that the hackers compromised is Antv, a library made by Alibaba. In some cases, the hackers published malicious updates on GitHub, according to JFrog Security.

This latest wave of attacks is part of a wider campaign targeting open source projects and the developers who use the code for their own projects. Researchers have dubbed the hacks “Mini Shai-Hulud,” after the attack followed a previous, more expansive hacking campaign.

Last week, in another wave of attacks as part of the Mini Shai-Hulud attacks, hackers compromised the computers of two OpenAI employees after hacking the open source library TanStack. OpenAI was just one of several victims.