{"id":"MAL-2026-17789","summary":"Malicious code in hd-wallet-generator (RubyGems)","details":"\n---\n_-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-_\n\n## Source: amazon-inspector (5d6925082b6aa5db29d0569324b4485976add2368c78635d4be5c52270ee3771)\nThe gem's declared native extension build script ext/hd_wallet_generator/extconf.rb executes a Base64-encoded payload via eval() during `gem install`. The decoded payload opens a TCP socket to the hardcoded remote host 45.138.12.177:8089 and pipes /bin/sh over it (TCPSocket.new + IO.popen(['/bin/sh'],'r+') + IO.copy_stream), granting a remote operator an interactive shell on the installer's host. Execution is wrapped in a double-forked, detached child with a 20–40 minute sleep to decorrelate the connection from the install event. The payload runs only when a battery of evasion checks pass: no CI environment variables, hostname does not match sandbox/firecracker/vagrant/uvm patterns, username does not match generated/analyst patterns (uA\\d+, sandbox, tester, analys, scanner), cwd is not under /tmp or /opt/rubygems, machine uptime exceeds 30 minutes, and developer-signal paths exist on disk (~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.gem/credentials, ~/.bundle, ~/.npmrc). No native source files are shipped; create_makefile is a cover stub so the extension-build pretext never actually builds anything. The package metadata name (hd-wallet-generator) and the README description (bitcoin-rpc-lite) disagree, consistent with a disguised dropper.\n\n## Source: ossf-package-analysis (c08d2f81c67c979fda86b30b0b5b2beae51023a7cd219c12df286a6c6d9cf6cc)\nThe OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'hd-wallet-generator' @ 0.9.1 (rubygems) as malicious.\n\nIt is considered malicious because:\n\n- The package executes one or more commands associated with malicious behavior.\n","modified":"2026-10-13T23:30:05.018493517Z","published":"2026-10-11T07:25:28Z","database_specific":{"malicious-packages-origins":[{"id":"IN-MAL-2026-021349","import_time":"2026-10-11T14:17:58.222601564Z","modified_time":"2026-10-11T13:45:45Z","sha256":"5d6925082b6aa5db29d0569324b4485976add2368c78635d4be5c52270ee3771","source":"amazon-inspector","versions":["0.9.1"]},{"versions":["0.9.1"],"import_time":"2026-10-13T23:14:39.574891917Z","modified_time":"2026-10-11T07:25:28Z","sha256":"c08d2f81c67c979fda86b30b0b5b2beae51023a7cd219c12df286a6c6d9cf6cc","source":"ossf-package-analysis"}]},"references":[{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://rubygems.org/gems/hd-wallet-generator/versions/0.9.1"}],"affected":[{"package":{"name":"hd-wallet-generator","ecosystem":"RubyGems","purl":"pkg:gem/hd-wallet-generator"},"versions":["0.9.1"],"database_specific":{"cwes":[{"cweId":"CWE-506","description":"The product contains code that appears to be malicious in nature.","name":"Embedded Malicious Code"}],"indicators":{"evidence_files":[{"path":"ext/hd_wallet_generator/extconf.rb","sha256":"10218e975f54a4f11fe3954e1b584a5f05054003bf5773c3c2b8cceaa74ba763","tlsh":"9751775acf8359e55aa1c0c045798012faa3ab0a50646875f3ee0868ff59b26c0f12fe"}]},"source":"https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/rubygems/hd-wallet-generator/MAL-2026-17789.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.9.0","credits":[{"name":"Amazon Inspector","contact":["inspector-research@amazon.com"],"type":"FINDER"},{"name":"OpenSSF: Package Analysis","contact":["https://github.com/ossf/package-analysis","https://openssf.slack.com/channels/package_analysis"],"type":"FINDER"}]}