Japan warns of malicious PyPi packages created by North Korean hackers

Japan's Computer Security Incident Response Team (JPCERT/CC) is warning that the notorious North Korean hacking group Lazarus has uploaded four malicious PyPI packages to infect developers with malware. PyPI (Python Package Index) is a repository of open-source software packages that software developers can utilize in their Python projects to add additional functionality to their programs with minimal effort. The lack of strict checks on the platform allows threat actors to upload malicious packages like information-stealing malware and backdoors that infect developers' computers with malware when added to their projects. This malware allows the hacking group to access the developer's network, where they conduct financial fraud or compromise software projects to conduct supply chain attacks. Lazarus previously leveraged PyPI to distribute malware in August 2023, when the North Korean state-sponsored hackers submitted packages camouflaged as a VMware vSphere connector module. Today, JPCERT/CC is warning that Lazarus has once again uploaded packages to PyPi that will install the 'Comebacker' malware loader. The four new packages that JPCERT/CC attributes to Lazarus are: The first two packages' names create a false link to the legitimate 'pycrypto' project (Python Cryptography Toolkit), a collection of secure hash functions and various encryption algorithms downloaded 9 million times every month. None of the four packages are currently available on PyPI, as they were removed fr...