CircuitPython v2

Problem

Authors of open source software may decide to use their projects to spread political messages. Running software packages that include protestware dependencies may trigger protest-related functions when executed in the targeted environments or geographies. Protest-motivated code is commonly implemented as a simple display of harmless messages that call for peace. However, over time protestware may evolve to include code that performs excessive logging, issues denial of service, or even deletes user files. Software packages that depend on protestware code are considered to be potentially unwanted applications. When political activism escalates to inclusion of destructive code, additional malware detection policies trigger to flag malicious intent.

Problem

Data Execution Prevention (DEP/NX) is a vulnerability mitigation option that prevents data from being interpreted as code anywhere within the application. This mitigation protects the application stack, heap and other memory data ranges. Executable files that fail to implement this mitigation expose the user to increased risks of malicious code injection.

Problem

Sensitive executable memory regions should be kept as read-only to protect the integrity of trusted execution code flow paths. Imported function addresses are pointers to the symbols that implement the application-required functionality. If those pointers are changed by malicious code, execution paths can be redirected to unintended locations. Most modern programming language toolchains protect those memory regions appropriately. These issues are commonly reported for outdated linkers and non-compliant executable packing solutions.

Problem

Sensitive executable memory regions should be kept as read-only to protect the integrity of trusted execution code flow paths. Thread local storage (TLS) callbacks are pointers to code initialization and resource release functions. If those pointers are changed by malicious code, execution paths can be redirected to unintended locations. Most modern programming language toolchains protect those memory regions appropriately. These issues are commonly reported for outdated linkers and non-compliant executable packing solutions.

Problem

Operating systems execute application code in multiple privilege access levels. Separation of privileges is designed to protect the stability and integrity of the operating system by shielding it from issues that the user run applications may cause. However, some users may need to interact with higher privilege parts of the operating system to accomplish specific tasks. For this purpose, operating systems provide facilities that users may leverage to temporarily elevate their running privileges. Users with higher privileges can run any application with the same privilege level as their own. Attackers often try to trick privileged users into running malicious code, enabling them to infect the operating system. While the presence of code that elevates user privileges does not necessarily imply malicious intent, all of its uses in a software package should be documented and approved. Only select applications should consider using functions that can elevate user privileges. One example of acceptable use for such functions is allowing the users to install software packages and updates.

Problem

Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are structured addresses that point to locations and assets on the internet. URLs allow software developers to build complex applications that exchange data with servers that can be hosted in multiple geographical regions. URLs can commonly be found embedded in documentation, configuration files, source code and compiled binaries. One or more embedded URLs were discovered to link to raw files hosted on GitHub. Attackers often abuse popular web services to host malicious payloads. Since code-sharing services URLs are typically allowed by security solutions, using them for payload delivery increases the odds that the malicious code will reach the user. While the presence of code-sharing service locations does not imply malicious intent, all of their uses in a software package should be documented and approved. An increasing number of software supply chain attacks in the open source space leverages the GitHub service to deliver malicious payloads.

Problem

Applications communicate with web services by exchanging HTTP requests. During software development, externally hosted services are used by developers to debug software quality issues relating to exchanging HTTP requests. Attackers commonly abuse tools designed for HTTP request inspection to monitor network traffic and extract sensitive information from the HTTP traffic. While the presence of domains related to HTTP inspection does not imply malicious intent, all of their uses in a software package should be documented and approved. Attackers might have purposely injected security testing tools in the software package to monitor the network traffic of the infected computer system. It is also possible that the software package has mistakenly included a part of its testing infrastructure during packaging.

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. Some open source projects have a history of security lapses that culminated with a publication of one or more malicious component versions. To ensure that repeated supply chain incidents do not occur, the open source project should be closely monitored for up to two years. All software package versions that are published within two years of the malware incident will convey a warning about the history of security incidents tied to the open source project.

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. Some open source repositories allow the developers to take down software component versions that they have published. For open source projects, version unpublishing is uncommon. Versions are typically removed due to a security incident, such as malicious code tampering or accidental development secrets exposure. Software developers often prioritize taking down such packages before informing the community that they have experienced a security incident. Therefore, it is prudent to review the reasons behind software version removals as these events might be a signal of an ongoing software supply chain attack.

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. Each of these components can have dozens, or even hundreds, of its own dependencies. When building applications, software developers download and install components from public repositories. For components to work properly, all of their dependencies also need to be installed. Some package repositories, like Node Package Manager (NPM), allow components to declare dependencies that are hosted remotely. Such dependencies are automatically downloaded from a specified location during software component installation. Since remotely hosted dependencies are not immutable, that enables a threat actor to change the dependency contents even after a component was published and vetted by security solutions. It is uncommon to find open source components that use remotely hosted dependencies residing outside the official project source code repository.