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-cracked
  • ttf-ms-fonts-all
  • vesktop-bin-patched
  • ttf-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.

  • copygirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    101
    ·
    edit-2
    22 hours ago

    most of the the Arch cult forget to mention that

    The “Arch cult’s” holy book, the ArchWiki, states the following pretty clearly:

    Warning: AUR packages are user-produced content. These PKGBUILDs are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk.

    Mention of one’s use of the AUR for their needs doesn’t need to come with a disclaimer.
    People who don’t read or don’t use their brain are going to keep not doing so, regardless.