Cybersecurity researchers have identified a harmful package on the Python Package Index (PyPI) that pretends to be a benign Discord utility but embeds a remote access trojan (RAT). The package, named discordpydebug, was uploaded to PyPI on March 21, 2022, and has been downloaded over 11,500 times. Interestingly, it has not received any updates since its initial release.

Initially, the package appears to assist developers working with Discord bots that utilize the Discord.py library. However, it conceals a fully operational RAT capable of connecting to an external server, enabling the attacker to read and write arbitrary files based on commands sent from the server.

Once installed, discordpydebug can be used to steal sensitive information such as configuration files, tokens, and credentials, manipulate existing files, download additional malicious payloads, and execute arbitrary commands that can exfiltrate data. Despite lacking features for persistence or privilege escalation, its straightforward design makes it particularly effective. The use of outbound HTTP polling allows it to slip past most firewalls and security measures, especially in less monitored development environments.

This discovery aligns with a broader trend as the software supply chain security company has uncovered over 45 npm packages that fake reputable libraries, seeking to deceive developers into installing them. Noteworthy examples include fake versions of popular libraries such as BeautifulSoup4 and Apache HttpClient.

All these malign packages exhibit similar characteristics, employing obscured payloads, and point to the same IP address indicating a single threat actor behind this operation. They contain concealed code intended to bypass security measures, execute harmful scripts, and retrieve sensitive information while maintaining their presence on affected systems.

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