Threat actors are utilizing an attack called "Revival Hijack," where they register new PyPi projects using the names of previously deleted packages to conduct supply chain attacks.

The technique "could be used to hijack 22K existing PyPI packages and subsequently lead to hundreds of thousands of malicious package downloads," the researchers say.

If you ever install python software or libraries using pip install then you need to be aware of this. Since PyPI is allowing re-use of project names when a project is deleted, any python project that isn't being actively maintained could potentially have fallen victim to this issue, if it happened to depend on a package that was later deleted by its author.

This means installing legacy python code is no longer safe. You will need to check every single dependency manually to verify that it is safe.

Hopefully, actively maintained projects will notice if this happens to them, but it still isn't guaranteed. This makes me feel very uneasy installing software from PyPI, and it's not the first time this repository has been used for distributing malicious packages.

It feels completely insane to me that a software repository would allow re-use of names of deleted projects - there is so much that can go wrong with this, and very little reason to justify allowing it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/4912712

Most people know at this point that when searching for a popular software package to download, you should be very careful to avoid clicking on any of the search ads that appear, as this has become an extremely common vector for distributing malware to unsuspecting users.

If you thought that you could identify these malicious ads by checking the URL below the ad to see if it directs to the legitimate site, think again! Malware advertisers have found a way to use Google's Ad platform to fake the URL shown with the ad to make it appear like a legitimate ad for the product when in fact, clicking the ad will redirect to an attacker controlled site serving malware.

Don't click on search ads or, even better, use an ad-blocker so that you never see them in the first place!

Most people know at this point that when searching for a popular software package to download, you should be very careful to avoid clicking on any of the search ads that appear, as this has become an extremely common vector for distributing malware to unsuspecting users.

If you thought that you could identify these malicious ads by checking the URL below the ad to see if it directs to the legitimate site, think again! Malware advertisers have found a way to use Google's Ad platform to fake the URL shown with the ad to make it appear like a legitimate ad for the product when in fact, clicking the ad will redirect to an attacker controlled site serving malware.

Don't click on search ads or, even better, use an ad-blocker so that you never see them in the first place!

A reported Free Download Manager supply chain attack redirected Linux users to a malicious Debian package repository that installed information-stealing malware.

The malware used in this campaign establishes a reverse shell to a C2 server and installs a Bash stealer that collects user data and account credentials.

Kaspersky discovered the potential supply chain compromise case while investigating suspicious domains, finding that the campaign has been underway for over three years.