Glassworm malware returns in third wave of malicious VS Code packages

The Glassworm marketing campaign, which first emerged on the OpenVSX and Microsoft Visible Studio marketplaces in October, is now in its third wave, with 24 new packages added on the 2 platforms.

OpenVSX and the Microsoft Visible Studio Market are each extension repositories for VS Code–appropriate editors, utilized by builders to put in language help, frameworks, tooling, themes, and different productiveness add-ons.

The Microsoft market is the official platform for Visible Studio Code, whereas OpenVSX is an open, vendor-neutral different utilized by editors who cannot or do not use Microsoft’s proprietary retailer.

First documented by Koi Safety on October 20, Glassworm is a malware that makes use of “invisible Unicode characters” to cover its code from evaluation.

As soon as builders set up it of their environments, it makes an attempt to steal GitHub, npm, and OpenVSX accounts, in addition to cryptocurrency pockets information from 49 extensions.

Furthermore, the malware deploys a SOCKS proxy to route malicious site visitors by way of the sufferer’s machine and installs the HVNC shopper to provide operators stealthy distant entry.

Though the preliminary an infection was cleaned from the extension repositories, the malware returned to each websites shortly after with new extensions and writer accounts.

Previous to this, Open VSX had declared the incident totally contained, with the platform rotating compromised entry tokens.

The re-emergence of Glassworm was found by Safe Annex’s researcher, John Tuckner, who experiences that the package deal names point out a broad concentrating on scope masking well-liked instruments and developer frameworks like Flutter, Vim, Yaml, Tailwind, Svelte, React Native, and Vue.

Safe Annex has now discovered that the third wave makes use of the packages listed beneath.

VS Market

1. iconkieftwo.icon-theme-materiall
2. prisma-inc.prisma-studio-assistance
3. prettier-vsc.vsce-prettier
4. flutcode.flutter-extension
5. csvmech.csvrainbow
6. codevsce.codelddb-vscode
7. saoudrizvsce.claude-devsce
8. clangdcode.clangd-vsce
9. cweijamysq.sync-settings-vscode
10. bphpburnsus.iconesvscode
11. klustfix.kluster-code-verify
12. vims-vsce.vscode-vim
13. yamlcode.yaml-vscode-extension
14. solblanco.svetle-vsce
15. vsceue.volar-vscode
16. redmat.vscode-quarkus-pro
17. msjsdreact.react-native-vsce

Open VSX

1. bphpburn.icons-vscode
2. tailwind-nuxt.tailwindcss-for-react
3. flutcode.flutter-extension
4. yamlcode.yaml-vscode-extension
5. saoudrizvsce.claude-dev
6. saoudrizvsce.claude-devsce
7. vitalik.solidity

As soon as the packages are accepted on the marketplaces, the publishers push an replace that introduces the malicious code, then inflate their obtain counts to make them seem legit and reliable.

Additionally, artificially rising obtain counts can manipulate search outcomes, with the malicious extension showing larger within the outcomes, typically very near the legit tasks it impersonates.

The researcher experiences that Glassworm has developed on the technical aspect as effectively, now utilizing Rust-based implants packaged contained in the extensions. The invisible Unicode trick can also be nonetheless utilized in some instances.

BleepingComputer has contacted each OpenVSX and Microsoft relating to Glassworm’s continued capacity to bypass their defenses, and we’ll replace this put up with their responses as soon as acquired.

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