GlassWorm Supply-Chain Campaign Compromising GitHub Repositories and Packages

The GlassWorm campaign is compromising open-source software supply chains by using stolen developer credentials and stealthy code injection techniques to backdoor repositories, packages, and extensions on GitHub, npm, PyPI, and the VS Code Marketplace. Reporting describes attackers inserting obfuscated payloads into legitimate projects, including popular repositories and Python codebases, then hiding the malicious logic with tactics such as invisible Unicode PUA characters, Base64 encoding, and history rewriting that preserves original commit metadata. The malware is designed to steal secrets, credentials, and access tokens, and in some cases retrieves follow-on payload information through Solana transaction memo fields to make exfiltration and command delivery harder to detect.

The campaign appears broad and operationally mature, with one report citing at least 151 compromised GitHub repositories in early March and another describing hundreds of affected Python repositories targeted through force-pushed malicious commits. Attackers reportedly append payloads to files such as setup.py, main.py, and app.py, while earlier access is linked to compromised developer environments, including malicious VS Code and Cursor extensions used to steal GitHub tokens. The activity affects multiple ecosystems and developer workflows, indicating a sustained supply-chain threat rather than isolated repository tampering, with risks extending to downstream users who install or execute code from infected projects.