An active supply chain worm campaign, dubbed SANDWORM_MODE, is spreading through typosquatting and AI toolchain poisoning across at least 19 malicious npm packages. The worm exhibits Shai-Hulud characteristics, incorporating GitHub API exfiltration with DNS fallback, hook-based persistence, SSH propagation, and MCP server injection targeting AI coding assistants. It harvests credentials from developer and CI environments, exfiltrates data via multiple channels, and uses stolen identities to propagate. The campaign also includes a weaponized GitHub Action for CI secret harvesting. The worm employs a multi-stage design with obfuscated loaders, time-gated execution, and extensive configuration options. It targets high-traffic developer utilities, crypto tooling, and AI coding tools, posing a significant threat to the software supply chain.
