[MALWARE] 0.4.11 on OpenVSX is COMPROMISED

[IlyasMakari]

🚨 Security Alert: Malicious Version Detected on Open VSX

Hi @alexsoyes

I’m a malware researcher at Aikido Security. I wanted to let you know that we’ve identified a compromised version of your VS Code extension published on Open VSX.

Specifically:

• ai-driven-dev/ai-driven-dev@0.4.11

This version appears to contain hidden Private Use Area (PUA) Unicode characters that decode and execute malicious payloads at runtime. This is part of a new attack wave targeting open-source extensions and repositories, which we documented in our write-up here: https://www.aikido.dev/blog/the-return-of-the-invisible-threat-hidden-pua-unicode-hits-github-repositorties.

We’ve already contacted Open VSX directly so they can take action on their side, but I wanted to make sure you’re aware as the maintainer. It would be a good idea to:

• Rotate your tokens and any associated credentials
• Enable MFA wherever possible
• Review recent account activity to ensure no other projects are affected
• Publish a new, clean version of the extension to help protect your users

We are still investigating the source of this attack, but we’ve seen a couple of similar attacks affecting other projects today.

If you’d like more technical details from our findings, I’d be happy to share them.