Threat actors may be on the cusp of a major cryptomining operation with the new CuteBoi operation, which involved the creation of 1,283 JavaScript packages on NPM using more than 1,000 user accounts, reports The Register.
Numerous NPM users and packages have been observed by Checkmarx researchers to be automatically created recently, with all of the packages found to have nearly the same code as the Eazyminer package for Monero mining. While downloading the packages would not adversely impact machines, CuteBoi altered the configuration files of Eazyminer to specify the recipient server of mined cryptocurrency.
“At the heart of these packages are the XMRig miners. Their binaries, compiled for Windows and Linux systems, are shipped along with the packages. The attacker changes the names of these binaries to match the random names of the package themselves,” wrote researchers.
The discovery of the CuteBoi attack comes after the discovery of the IconBurst software supply chain attack that also leveraged NPM JavaScript packages, and researchers noted that similar attacks are only poised to increase in prevalence.
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