On the 16th of July, at around 8pm UTC+2, a malicious AUR package was uploaded to the AUR. Two other malicious packages were uploaded by the same user a few hours later. These packages were installing a script coming from the same GitHub repository that was identified as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT).
The affected malicious packages are:
- librewolf-fix-bin
- firefox-patch-bin
- zen-browser-patched-bin
The Arch Linux team addressed the issue as soon as they became aware of the situation. As of today, 18th of July, at around 6pm UTC+2, the offending packages have been deleted from the AUR.
We strongly encourage users that may have installed one of these packages to remove them from their system and to take the necessary measures in order to ensure they were not compromised.
Follow up
There are more packages with this malware found.
minecraft-crackedttf-ms-fonts-allvesktop-bin-patchedttf-all-ms-fonts
What to do
If you installed any of these packages, check your running processes for one named systemd-initd (this is the RAT).
The suspicious packages have a patch from this now-inaccessible Codeberg repo: https://codeberg.org/arch_lover3/browser-patch
The Arch maintainers have been informed of all this already and are investigating.
i don’t use arch (btw).
This is technically not Arch’s fault btw. I use Arch but don’t use AUR for this reason
Also same problem adding random PPA’s on Debian and Ubuntu.
Agreed. Or piping random
curlthings intosh. Or downloading randomexes on Windows etcit was a joke. perhaps a /s was warranted. it could happen in any package manager/repo and I’d be surprised if it hasn’t yet.
Oh definitely, I wasn’t trying to correct you or anything. Just having conversation
It has already happened a few times with other repos. Although AUR is especially susceptible because there’s no vetting at all, it’s a free-for-all that everyone can publish to within a few clicks. This will for sure happen again within a couple months, but better hidden the next time.