Threats Tagged 'miasma'

On August 4, 2026, ChainDrop, a self-propagating worm variant of Mini Shai-Hulud linked to TeamPCP, infiltrated the npm ecosystem through a compromised maintainer account of the keyv ecosystem. The attacker injected malicious code into GitHub repositories, weaponizing legitimate CI/CD pipelines to publish poisoned packages with valid SLSA Build Level 3 provenance attestations, making them indistinguishable from clean releases. ChainDrop spread to over 400 packages within four hours by stealing npm tokens and republishing infected versions. The worm employs Ethereum smart contracts for C2 infrastructure, enabling domain rotation without modifying deployed malware. It features destructive capabilities, wiping victim home directories upon token revocation, and achieves persistence through IDE and AI-agent configuration files. The payload harvests credentials from npm, GitHub, AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, HashiCorp Vault, and other services, exfiltrating data via GitHub repositories and EtherHiding techniques.

Cybercriminals are exploiting API keys used by developers to access AI platforms through a technique called token jacking. Attackers steal these authentication tokens to gain unauthorized access to expensive AI resources, which they either use themselves or resell through gray-market services called transfer stations. These transfer stations act as intermediaries, offering frontier AI model access at discounted rates using stolen credentials. The financial impact can be catastrophic, with victims potentially losing hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars before detection due to unlimited scaling defaults and cyclical billing. Attackers obtain tokens through information stealers, phishing campaigns, compromised code repositories, and poisoned npm packages. Organizations can mitigate risks through spending limits, privileged account reviews, short-term bearer tokens, AI gateways, and tight development environment management.

On July 14, 2026, a coordinated supply chain attack compromised the @asyncapi npm organization, affecting five package versions across four packages. The attack originated from a GitHub Actions workflow vulnerability that exposed privileged credentials, enabling unauthorized code injection. Unlike typical postinstall attacks, this campaign executes at module import time, bypassing common npm install --ignore-scripts protections. The malicious code spawned hidden processes that fetched a second-stage payload from IPFS, deploying the Miasma modular runtime with command-and-control capabilities, persistence mechanisms, and credential harvesting features. The payload included disabled modules for supply-chain propagation, AI-tool poisoning, and sandbox evasion. All compromised packages were published through legitimate GitHub OIDC workflows with valid provenance signatures, masking the malicious activity within trusted release processes.

Four npm packages in the AsyncAPI namespace were compromised to distribute a multi-stage botnet loader called Miasma. The attack utilized trusted GitHub Actions publishing but originated from a poisoned source commit. Malicious code was injected into legitimate source files that execute when imported, launching a detached Node.js process to download an 8.25 MB encrypted payload from IPFS. The final payload is a sophisticated tasking framework supporting multiple command-and-control channels including REST, Nostr relays, IPFS, Ethereum smart contracts, and BitTorrent DHT. The framework establishes persistence via systemd services on Linux and fake NodeJS directories, supporting file operations, shell execution, data collection, and cross-ecosystem propagation capabilities for npm, PyPI, RubyGems, and Cargo ecosystems.

On July 14, 2026, an attacker exploited a misconfigured GitHub Actions workflow in the AsyncAPI generator repository through a 'pwn request' vulnerability. The attacker opened 37 pull requests, with one containing obfuscated JavaScript that exfiltrated a highly privileged Personal Access Token belonging to asyncapi-bot. Using the stolen credentials, the attacker published five malicious npm package versions under the @asyncapi namespace, which collectively receive over three million downloads weekly. The malware features a multi-stage payload that establishes persistence and connects to command and control infrastructure, executing on import rather than install. It includes capabilities for credential theft targeting browsers, SSH keys, cloud credentials, and cryptocurrency wallets. The payload shares technical characteristics with the Miasma malware framework but shows unique features including a comprehensive command framework.

A sophisticated supply chain attack campaign linked to Mini Shai-Hulud, Miasma, and Hades malware has compromised LeoPlatform npm packages, GitHub Actions workflows, and the Verana Blockchain Go module. The attack employs binding.gyp install-time execution, Bun-staged JavaScript malware, and encrypted credential exfiltration targeting developer and CI/CD environments. Malicious packages were published through the czirker and llxlr npm accounts in a coordinated burst on June 24, 2026. The campaign steals credentials including npm tokens, GitHub tokens, cloud provider credentials, SSH keys, and AI coding assistant configurations. Attackers use GitHub as dead-drop infrastructure and inject persistence hooks into repositories through orphan branches and fake dependency-update workflows. The RevokeAndItGoesKaboom marker connects this wave to the codfish/semantic-release-action compromise, indicating shared operational tooling.

A sophisticated supply chain attack campaign has expanded to 471 affected artifacts across npm and PyPI, targeting developers through malicious packages. The campaign uses three distinct delivery methods: executable .pth startup hooks, trojanized native .abi3.so extensions that execute at import time, and a split loader-payload architecture that searches Python's sys.path. Twenty-three newly identified PyPI packages masquerade as bioinformatics tools, AI frameworks, and popular libraries like requests and Flask. The attack deploys heavily obfuscated JavaScript stealers via Bun runtime, harvesting high-value credentials including GitHub tokens, npm registry access, cloud credentials, SSH keys, and CI/CD secrets. The malware employs anti-analysis techniques with fake LLM prompt-injection headers designed to disrupt AI-assisted security scanners, while targeting developer workstations and automated build environments.

A coordinated PyPI compromise campaign involving 37 malicious wheel artifacts across 19 packages was detected, utilizing Python startup hooks to execute credential-stealing payloads. The attack leverages .pth files for automatic execution during Python interpreter startup, downloads the Bun JavaScript runtime, and runs obfuscated JavaScript payloads. The malware targets high-value developer and CI/CD credentials including GitHub, npm, PyPI, cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, Vault, SSH keys, and AI tool tokens. This represents a PyPI branch of the Shai-Hulud/Miasma campaign family, using a Hades-themed variant for GitHub exfiltration. Compromised packages included established bioinformatics tools with significant download counts, stemming from apparent maintainer account takeover. The payload employs multi-layer obfuscation, AES-GCM encryption, and exfiltrates data through GitHub repositories with distinctive markers. The campaign demonstrates cross-runtime attack capabilities and ecosystem-spe...