Sonatype exposes malicious PyPI package ‘pytoileur’

Sonatype has exposed 'pytoileur', a malicious PyPI package designed to download and install trojanised Windows binaries capable of surveillance, commandeering persistence, and stealing cryptocurrency. This discovery is part of a broader, months-long "Cool package" campaign aimed at infiltrating the coding community.

Yesterday, an automated malware detection system operated by Sonatype, known as the Sonatype Repository Firewall, flagged a newly published PyPI package called...

29 May 2024 | Hacking & Security

Phylum uncovers targeted malware disguised in Python package

Phylum’s cybersecurity experts have detected a malicious payload embedded within a popular Python package on the PyPI repository. The package, named requests-darwin-lite, is an unauthorised variant of the widely-used requests library.

The requests-darwin-lite package was cleverly designed to emulate its legitimate counterpart but included a Go binary concealed within an oversized image file pretending to be a simple logo. This file – a PNG labelled as a sidebar image –...

13 May 2024 | Hacking & Security

Open letter criticises ‘flawed’ CSAM scanning plan

An open letter signed by 270 scientists and researchers across 33 countries has raised major technical concerns about the EU's proposed regulation mandating the scanning of messaging apps for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The signees argue the techniques are fundamentally flawed and will "completely undermine communications and systems security."

"From a technical standpoint, to be effective, this new proposal will also completely undermine communications and systems...

3 May 2024 | Developer

Google blocked 2M malicious apps from the Play Store in 2023

Google blocked 2.28 million policy-violating apps from being published on the Play Store in 2023, thanks to improved security measures and tighter developer vetting processes. The company rejected or had developers remediate almost 200,000 app submissions to prevent abuse of sensitive permissions like location tracking and SMS access.  

The company says providing a safe and trusted Play Store experience is its top priority, underpinned by principles to "safeguard users",...

30 April 2024 | Android

GitHub’s 2FA rollout boosts supply chain security

In a push to enhance the security of the software supply chain, GitHub has successfully rolled out mandatory two-factor authentication (2FA) for code contributors on its platform.

GitHub’s 2FA rollout – announced in May 2022 – aimed to address the critical first link in the software supply chain by securing the developers responsible for designing, building, and maintaining the software we all rely on.

The results are in

After a year of meticulous preparation,...

25 April 2024 | Developer

What developers can learn from the largest DDoS attack in history

This past October, Google Cloud disclosed that it had successfully mitigated the largest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack in history – and that this DDoS attack had been hitting businesses since August.

What made it the worst DDoS to date? It was the volume. At its peak, the attack counted over 398 million requests per second (rps). To compare, the worst recorded DDoS attack up to that point, detected in 2022, reached 46 million rps.

The fall 2023 attack,...

19 April 2024 | Hacking & Security

Fortifying app security with the help of Terraform

A staple of DevOps tech stacks, Terraform is an Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) provisioning and management tool developed by HashiCorp. While Terraform itself is rarely associated with app security and is not directly related to the safety and cyber protection of applications, using it correctly is pivotal in the implementation of security best practices. 

As DevOps continues to morph into DevSecOps, and as supply chain attacks continue to breach enterprise systems,...

18 April 2024 | Cloud

Bitwarden strengthens passwordless authentication with magic links API

Credential management firm Bitwarden has announced an enhancement to its Passwordless.dev platform with the release of a magic links API.

Bitwarden’s latest offering empowers developers to seamlessly integrate passwordless authentication into their applications, providing a more secure and user-friendly experience for end-users.

The magic links API enables developers to send unique one-time-use links via email, allowing users to securely access their accounts or easily...

2 April 2024 | API

NVIDIA employs GenAI for rapid software vulnerability detection

NVIDIA has demonstrated how its generative AI technologies can help to quickly identify and mitigate common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) and other software security risks.

The NVIDIA NIM and NeMo Retriever microservices – along with the Morpheus accelerated AI framework – enable security analysts to detect and mitigate risks in a matter of seconds, a task that previously took hours or even days using traditional methods.

Traditional cybersecurity methods...

19 March 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Google paid $10M to bug hunters in 2023

Google has revealed that it paid out $10 million to over 600 bug hunters from 68 countries in 2023.

Throughout the year, Google's bug hunter community played a pivotal role in identifying and addressing thousands of vulnerabilities across various Google platforms. The company's dedication to incentivising researchers saw the introduction of several new programs and improvements to existing ones.

Among the notable developments was the launch of the Bonus Awards program,...

13 March 2024 | Android