Virtual Event: Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit - Watch Sessions
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cybercrime

Hundreds Infected With ‘Wasp’ Stealer in Ongoing Supply Chain Attack

Security researchers are raising alarm on an ongoing supply chain attack that uses malicious Python packages to distribute an information stealer.

Security researchers are raising alarm on an ongoing supply chain attack that uses malicious Python packages to distribute an information stealer.

Ongoing since the first half of October, the attack was uncovered by Phylum on November 1, with the attackers copying existing popular libraries and injecting a malicious ‘import’ statement into them.

The purpose of the injected code is to infect the victim’s machine with a script that runs in the background. The script, which fetches the victim’s geolocation, contains a modified version of an information stealer called Wasp.

The attackers have managed to infect hundreds of victims to date, while actively releasing new packages to continue the campaign, Checkmarx notes.

Steganography is used to hide the malicious code inside packages. The payload is polymorphic, meaning that different code results each time the second and third stage URLs are loaded, which helps evade detection and ensures persistence.

The Wasp malware can steal a great deal of information from victims’ machines, including Discord account information, passwords, credit card data, crypto wallets, and local files.

The threat actor behind these attacks is offering their malware on cybercrime forums, claiming the code is fully undetected.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Checkmarx was able to link Wasp’s author to a Steam account and to a YouTube channel containing videos on building Discord hacking tools.

Since the beginning of the campaign, the attacker has created tens of new Python packages and numerous fake user accounts that mimic legitimate libraries and accounts.

“The level of manipulation used by software supply chain attackers is increasing as attackers get increasingly more clever. It seems this attack is ongoing, and whenever the security team of Python deletes his packages, he quickly maneuvers and creates a new identity or simply uses a different name,” Checkmarx notes.

Related: Over 250 US News Websites Deliver Malware via Supply Chain Attack

Related: US Gov Issues Supply Chain Security Guidance for Software Suppliers

Related: Critical Packagist Vulnerability Opened Door for PHP Supply Chain Attack

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group informed some customers last week that their online accounts had been breached by hackers.

Cybercrime

As it evolves, web3 will contain and increase all the security issues of web2 – and perhaps add a few more.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cybercrime

Satellite TV giant Dish Network confirmed that a recent outage was the result of a cyberattack and admitted that data was stolen.

Cybercrime

Zendesk is informing customers about a data breach that started with an SMS phishing campaign targeting the company’s employees.

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Artificial Intelligence

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has demonstrated the potential of AI for both good and bad.