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Concealed backdoor in fake AWS files escaped mainstream notice


Files available on the open source NPM repository underscore a growing sophistication.

Researchers have determined that two fake AWS packages downloaded hundreds of times from the open source NPM JavaScript repository contained carefully concealed code that backdoored developers' computers when executed. The care the package developers put into the code and the effectiveness of their tactics underscores the growing sophistication of attacks targeting open source repositories, which besides NPM have included PyPI, GitHub, and RubyGems. Besides the sophistication of the concealment method, the entity devoted large amounts of time to producing high-quality code for open source projects in a successful effort to build trust with other developers.

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Concealed backdoor