stubsout

Problem

Software components contain executable code that performs actions implemented during its development. These actions are called behaviors. In the analysis report, behaviors are presented as human-readable descriptions that best match the underlying code intent. While most behaviors are benign, some are exclusively used by malicious software with the intent to cause harm. When a software package matches behavior traits of malicious software, it becomes flagged by security solutions. It is highly likely that the software package was tampered with by a malicious actor or a rogue insider.

Problem

Software developers use programming and design knowledge to build reusable software components. Software components are the basic building blocks for modern applications. Software consumed by an enterprise consists of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of open source components. Open source communities depend on the work of thousands of software developers that volunteer their time to maintain software components. While the majority of open source contributors are altruistic and trustworthy, some software developers are also members of security research or bug bounty programs. Researchers that participate in bug bounty programs develop applications that leak sensitive environment information to prove that they've successfully bypassed security mechanisms. Code written by these software developers should be put under a higher degree of scrutiny, and their code should never appear in software packages intended for release.

Problem

Software components contain executable code that performs actions implemented during its development. These actions are called behaviors. In the analysis report, behaviors are presented as human-readable descriptions that best match the underlying code intent. Python Package Index (PyPI) repository is often abused by threat actors to publish software packages that exhibit malicious behaviors. Malware authors use numerous tactics to lure developers into including malicious PyPI packages in their software projects. Most malicious packages published on PyPI target developers and their workstations. However, some are designed to activate only when deployed in the end-user environment. Both types of Python malicious packages are detected by proprietary ReversingLabs threat hunting algorithms. This detection method is considered proactive, and it is based on Machine Learning (ML) algorithms that can detect novel malware. The detection is strongly influenced by behaviors that software components exhibit. Behaviors similar to previously discovered malware and software supply chain attacks may cause some otherwise benign software packages to be detected by this policy.

Problem

Software developers use programming and design knowledge to build reusable software components. Software components are the basic building blocks for modern applications. Software consumed by an enterprise consists of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of open source components. Software developers publish components they have authored to public repositories. Open source projects are the intellectual property of their respective authors. At any time, the authors may choose to completely remove the software component from a public repository. This often occurs when a software project reaches its end-of-life stage, or when the software authors lose interest in maintaining the project. This kind of removal frees up the software package name, its unique software identifier in the public repository, for other developers to use. However, new software project owners might have malicious intent. Threat actors are continuously monitoring popular package names in case their unique identifiers suddenly become available for hijacking. Once the software projects falls under new ownership, the new maintainers may opt to use the project popularity to spread malware to unsuspecting users.

Prevalence in PyPI community

No prevalence information at this time

Problem

Software developers use programming and design knowledge to build reusable software components. Software components are the basic building blocks for modern applications. Software consumed by an enterprise consists of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of open source components. Software developers publish components they have authored to public repositories. While a new software project is a welcome addition to the open source community, it is not always prudent to indiscriminately use the latest components when building a commercial application. Irrespective of the software quality, the danger of being the first to try out a new project lies in the fact that the software component may contain novel, currently undetected malicious code. Therefore, it is prudent to review software component behaviors and even try out software component in a sandbox, an environment meant for testing untrusted code.

Prevalence in PyPI community

No prevalence information at this time