Malicious variants of the Nx build system were published to the npm registry and included a script that searches installed environments for sensitive developer data. The script targeted cryptocurrencies, GitHub and npm tokens, and SSH keys. The campaign identified as 's1ngularity' used command-line AI assistants such as Claude, Gemini, and Amazon Q to locate credentials. Initial exfiltration occurred for about eight hours before GitHub halted traffic, but attackers resumed activity by exploiting an unchecked pull-request title vulnerability in a GitHub Actions workflow. New branches include fixes but older branches remain active. About 3,000 repositories across over 190 accounts were affected. The malicious telemetry.js runs on Linux and macOS.
Since this week, cyber attackers have been attempting to steal sensitive data from developers via malicious versions of Nx. Legitimate-looking variants of the Nx build system were publicly available via the npm registry. Although GitHub has already taken action, Wiz points out that compromises are still occurring. Nx is mainly used by JavaScript and TypeScript developers to manage software projects. These often involve complex codebases, with Nx maintaining an overview and ensuring that different components continue to work well together.
Downloading a malicious version of the tool can invite enormous security threats due to the deep integration with sensitive data. The malicious Nx versions appeared online last Tuesday. They contained a script that, once installed, hunted for said sensitive data from developers. Wiz Threat Research notes that cryptocurrencies, tokens for GitHub and npm, and SSH keys are among the intended loot. The attack campaign is known as 's1ngularity', a name that can be found in compromised repositories that have been renamed.
It is striking that command-line assistants such as Claude, Gemini, and Amazon Q helped the attackers in their search. What followed was an 8-hour period during which affected users could lose their data; after that, GitHub stopped the exfiltration attempts. On Wednesday, August 27, Wiz discovered that this attempt was insufficient: new repositories were added again. Yesterday, it turned out that the root cause was an error within a GitHub Actions workflow. This allowed code injection via pull request titles that were not checked.
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