MAL-2026-17789

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Import Source
https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/rubygems/hd-wallet-generator/MAL-2026-17789.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/MAL-2026-17789
Published
2026-10-11T13:45:45Z
Modified
2026-10-11T14:30:07Z
Summary
Malicious code in hd-wallet-generator (RubyGems)
Details

-= Per source details. Do not edit below this line.=-

Source: amazon-inspector (5d6925082b6aa5db29d0569324b4485976add2368c78635d4be5c52270ee3771)

The gem's declared native extension build script ext/hd_wallet_generator/extconf.rb executes a Base64-encoded payload via eval() during gem install. The decoded payload opens a TCP socket to the hardcoded remote host 45.138.12.177:8089 and pipes /bin/sh over it (TCPSocket.new + IO.popen(['/bin/sh'],'r+') + IO.copy_stream), granting a remote operator an interactive shell on the installer's host. Execution is wrapped in a double-forked, detached child with a 20–40 minute sleep to decorrelate the connection from the install event. The payload runs only when a battery of evasion checks pass: no CI environment variables, hostname does not match sandbox/firecracker/vagrant/uvm patterns, username does not match generated/analyst patterns (uA\d+, sandbox, tester, analys, scanner), cwd is not under /tmp or /opt/rubygems, machine uptime exceeds 30 minutes, and developer-signal paths exist on disk (~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.gem/credentials, ~/.bundle, ~/.npmrc). No native source files are shipped; create_makefile is a cover stub so the extension-build pretext never actually builds anything. The package metadata name (hd-wallet-generator) and the README description (bitcoin-rpc-lite) disagree, consistent with a disguised dropper.

Database specific 
{
    "malicious-packages-origins": [
        {
            "id": "IN-MAL-2026-021349",
            "import_time": "2026-10-11T14:17:58.222601564Z",
            "modified_time": "2026-10-11T13:45:45Z",
            "sha256": "5d6925082b6aa5db29d0569324b4485976add2368c78635d4be5c52270ee3771",
            "source": "amazon-inspector",
            "versions": [
                "0.9.1"
            ]
        }
    ]
}
References
Credits

Affected packages

RubyGems / hd-wallet-generator

Package

Name
hd-wallet-generator
Purl
pkg:gem/hd-wallet-generator

Affected ranges

Affected versions

0.*
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/hd_wallet_generator/extconf.rb",
            "sha256": "10218e975f54a4f11fe3954e1b584a5f05054003bf5773c3c2b8cceaa74ba763",
            "tlsh": "9751775acf8359e55aa1c0c045798012faa3ab0a50646875f3ee0868ff59b26c0f12fe"
        }
    ]
}
source 
"https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/main/osv/malicious/rubygems/hd-wallet-generator/MAL-2026-17789.json"