Description

A new self-propagating malware strain dubbed GlassWorm has been discovered infecting Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extensions distributed via both Microsoft’s official Marketplace and the open-source Open VSX Registry. Security researchers from Koi Security report that GlassWorm spreads autonomously between compromised extensions, enabling large-scale credential theft, remote access, and network proxying across thousands of developer systems worldwide. GlassWorm embeds malicious JavaScript payloads inside VS Code extensions using invisible Unicode variation selectors—characters that appear as blank space—allowing the malware to evade human review and static analysis. Once an infected extension is installed, the malware executes an obfuscated script that connects to command-and-control (C2) servers hidden within the Solana blockchain, reading Base64-encoded payload URLs stored in transaction memo fields. If the blockchain channel is unavailable, GlassWorm switches to a Google Calendar event fallback, parsing encoded URLs from event titles to fetch secondary payloads. Upon activation, the malware harvests credentials for GitHub, npm, Open VSX, and cryptocurrency wallets, installs a hidden VNC service (HVNC) for remote control, and configures a SOCKS proxy and WebRTC modules to turn infected hosts into nodes for lateral propagation. The worm leverages VS Code’s auto-update mechanism, meaning compromised extensions are silently updated on developer machines without user interaction—creating a self-spreading supply-chain infection.