Findings

MAL-2026-17800

Malicious code in wallet-hd-derive (RubyGems)

Published Oct 11, 2026 · updated Oct 13, 2026

--- _-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-_ ## Source: amazon-inspector (fdfb31a6866dee961d55ad503da9de33a2cf743b52c80862e4380519ad5bef12) The gem is published as a crypto wallet utility but ships no native source; its gemspec declares extconf.rb as an extension so that auto-executes it. extconf.rb decodes a base64-encoded Ruby payload and, after checking for sandbox and analysis signals (CI env, ephemeral hostnames, generated usernames matching patterns such as /sandbox/tester/analys/scanner, cwd under /tmp, /opt/rubygems, /workspace, low machine uptime) and confirming developer-identifying files ( , , etc.), double-forks a detached process via fork + Process.setsid, sleeps for 20–40 minutes, then opens a TCP connection to 45.138.12.177:8089 and pipes /bin/sh in both directions using TCPSocket and IO.popen/IO.copy_stream. The shipped library at lib/wallet_hd_derive.rb exposes only two no-op methods ( , ) and the README is branded for an unrelated package ( ), confirming the gem exists solely as a delivery vehicle for the install-time backdoor. The destination IP, base64 encoding of the payload, sandbox-evasion gating, and delayed reverse-shell establishment give a remote operator interactive /bin/sh on any developer or CI host that installs the gem. ## Source: ossf-package-analysis (4630595f8934769aa5dc9e63f62e4552e3cb3663dc5f03e5def0deeb3a8476e1) The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'wallet-hd-derive' @ 0.9.1 (rubygems) as malicious. It is considered malicious because: - The package executes one or more commands associated with malicious behavior.