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Malicious VSCode extensions with millions of installs discovered (www.bleepingcomputer.com)

submitted 5 months ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to c/programming@programming.dev

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[–] towerful@programming.dev 93 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

What makes this even more sneaky is that JetBrains has a theme called "Darcula".

So, with a wider generic theme called Dracula and themes that duplicate JetBrains Darcula theme, it is no surprise that "Darcula Official" is being installed.
It's more than just a typosquat

Edit:
But why can a theme make web requests?!

[–] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 65 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But why can a theme make web requests?!

Because we live in a broken world and nothing matters.

On a more serious note, it's a pretty horrifying misfeature. What's even more worrying is that by all appearances Microsoft doesn't give a shit, if they apparently didn't even bother removing the malicious extensions that were reported. Not that I'm surprised, but still.

[–] 30p87@feddit.de 14 points 5 months ago

But why can a theme make web requests?!

Why can a Word or Excel file execute shell code? Why does M$ SQL Server have xp_cmdshell?

Because we live in a broken world and nothing matters.

Because devs chose to live in this part of the world, dictated by M$ and other large companies, who just don't care.

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 5 months ago

But why can a theme make web requests?!

To display ads on your ide

[–] Kuinox@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's not a theme here, it's an extension.

[–] towerful@programming.dev 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think that's how themes are distributed for VSCode, right?
With VSCode, everything is an extension.
But the vscode marketplace seems to have filters for themes, so there must be some way to differentiate them.

I think extensions need a permissions system

[–] savedbythezsh@sh.itjust.works 17 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You declare it in the package.json as a category when publishing. It's completely self-selected with no oversight, review, or enforced permissions.

[–] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 3 points 5 months ago

Microsoft security practices haven't changed much over the decades

[–] Kuinox@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You can install themes directly from the theme selector.

[–] nekusoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Even worse, it also previews the theme when selected. I hope that the logic they use for that feature works in a simpler way.

[–] Kuinox@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I checked the logic and there is no rce.