The tactics are clever. Really clever. Attackers abuse GitHub’s “Issues” feature to distribute malware and artificially inflate commit histories to appear legitimate. They craft beautiful README.md files to make their repositories look professional. And why wouldn’t they? GitHub’s domain is trusted by default. Security tools rarely flag it.
Malware hides behind beautiful READMEs and inflated commit histories on a platform security tools inherently trust.
The malware they’re pushing isn’t your garden-variety junk. Remcos RAT, Lumma Stealer, Atlantida Stealer—fancy names for programs that do one thing: steal your stuff. Cryptocurrency wallets are prime targets. Password-stealing malware runs rampant. These aren’t script kiddies; they’re professionals.
Finance and insurance companies get hit hardest. No surprise there. That’s where the money is. In one particularly nasty campaign, over 1,300 victims were infected in just four days. The payoff? Criminals earned approximately $100,000 through dark web services. Not bad for less than a week’s “work.” Threat actors have increasingly shifted their focus to trusted repositories rather than creating new malicious ones. Experts recommend keeping 80-90% of cryptocurrency in cold wallets for enhanced security against these types of attacks.
GitHub isn’t sitting idle. They’ve implemented two-factor authentication requirements, secret scanning, and regularly disable malicious accounts. But it’s like playing whack-a-mole with increasingly sophisticated mallets.
The platform itself isn’t immune to security issues. Since 2021, researchers have found 11 directory traversal vulnerabilities, 4 XSS vulnerabilities, and various other security holes. Input validation vulnerabilities are on the rise. Security researchers actively track these vulnerabilities using NVD API data to monitor emerging threats.
For developers, the message is clear: That cool open-source crypto project might be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Strong passwords, secret scanning, IP allowlisting, and careful management of external contributors are no longer optional. They’re survival tools. Because in today’s GitHub, what looks like helpful code might just be a trap waiting to spring.
