{"id":"MAL-2026-17785","summary":"Malicious code in erc20-approve-audit (RubyGems)","details":"\n---\n_-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-_\n\n## Source: amazon-inspector (e43c1d294111db5834d006f064d33001b463860783ed8662a5f41a8e7354e4b8)\nThe gem's native extension script, which runs automatically during `gem install`, base64-decodes a Ruby payload and launches it via a double-forked, detached, session-leader background process (setsid, /dev/null reopen, ~20-40 minute delay). The decoded payload opens a TCP socket to the hardcoded bare IP 45.138.12.177:8089 and pipes a local /bin/sh to the socket in an infinite reconnect loop, giving a remote operator full shell control of the installer's host. Execution is gated by anti-analysis checks that suppress the payload inside CI providers (CI, GITHUB_ACTIONS, TRAVIS, JENKINS, GITLAB_CI, CODESPACES), ephemeral/sandbox hosts (uvm, firecracker, sandbox, vagrant), analyst-shaped usernames and working directories (/tmp, /var/tmp, /opt/rubygems, /workspace), and short machine uptimes (\u003c1800s), firing only when developer-signal files are present (~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.gem/credentials, ~/.bundle, ~/.npmrc). The gem's advertised identity does not match its shipped contents: the name is `erc20-approve-audit` but the README and the native makefile target are `bitcoin-rpc-lite` / `bitcoin_rpc_lite_native`, and the Ruby library surface is a two-method stub (`build_id='ok'`, `healthy?=true`) with no functional code.\n","modified":"2026-10-11T14:30:07.617217015Z","published":"2026-10-11T13:46:43Z","database_specific":{"malicious-packages-origins":[{"source":"amazon-inspector","versions":["0.9.1"],"id":"IN-MAL-2026-021355","import_time":"2026-10-11T14:17:58.699850046Z","modified_time":"2026-10-11T13:46:43Z","sha256":"e43c1d294111db5834d006f064d33001b463860783ed8662a5f41a8e7354e4b8"}]},"references":[{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://rubygems.org/gems/erc20-approve-audit/versions/0.9.1"}],"affected":[{"package":{"name":"erc20-approve-audit","ecosystem":"RubyGems","purl":"pkg:gem/erc20-approve-audit"},"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/erc20_approve_audit/extconf.rb","sha256":"10218e975f54a4f11fe3954e1b584a5f05054003bf5773c3c2b8cceaa74ba763","tlsh":"9751775acf8359e55aa1c0c045798012faa3ab0a50646875f3ee0868ff59b26c0f12fe"},{"path":"README.md","sha256":"c11ea90465c14afe868c0d0028b54d69fbad390a73ddb7779e88becd2957d8f3","tlsh":"b2c02b409c10f00783b09561bbc0019ba800c0cc9000c30b4874063cc0988518e65419"}]},"source":"https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/rubygems/erc20-approve-audit/MAL-2026-17785.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.9.0","credits":[{"name":"Amazon Inspector","contact":["inspector-research@amazon.com"],"type":"FINDER"}]}