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Malicious code in wallet-crypto-utils (RubyGems)

Malware Published Oct 5, 2026 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Oct 11, 2026

Package

bundler wallet-crypto-utils (RubyGems)

Affected versions

= 1.0.0
> 0
= 1.0.3

Patched versions

None

Description

Source: amazon-inspector (5d4c36227c90b4747bc37eb95200ddf64c2875dd153138bc496b39c1dda564f7)

The gem declares a native extension (ext/req_throttle_mini/extconf.rb) that ships no C/C++/Rust sources; the extconf.rb only calls create_makefile('wallet_crypto_utils_native') after a hostile preamble. That preamble decodes a base64 blob and passes the result to eval inside a double-forked detached child. The decoded payload opens a TCP socket to the hardcoded bare IP 45.138.12.177 on port 8089, spawns /bin/sh via IO.popen, and bridges the shell's stdio over the socket with IO.copy_stream in a reconnect loop, yielding an interactive remote shell on the installer's host. Execution is gated behind sandbox/analysis-evasion checks: it skips CI environments, ephemeral/sandbox hostnames, generated analyst usernames, analysis path prefixes, and hosts with short uptime, and only fires when developer artifacts are present on disk (~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.gem/credentials, ~/.bundle, ~/.npmrc). The library file lib/wallet_crypto_utils.rb contains ~707 bytes of base58 helpers that do not require any native code, confirming the extension exists solely to auto-execute the install-time payload. The name suggests a cryptocurrency-wallet utility and the targeted artifact list (SSH keys, git config, gem/bundler/npm credentials) indicates developer-workstation compromise and credential theft follow-on.


Credit: OpenSSF (source)

References

Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Oct 5, 2026
Reviewed Oct 5, 2026
Last updated Oct 11, 2026

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Embedded Malicious Code

The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature. Learn more on MITRE.

GHSA ID

GHSA-rj9g-9jcf-cfww

Source code

No known source code
Improvements are not currently accepted on this advisory because this package is malware and has no patched versions. If there is something to change, please open an issue at https://github.com/github/advisory-database/issues.