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Malicious MAL-2026-18126

zzhelloworld_socktest

RubyGems package · versions 0.1.9, 0.1.5, 0.1.6, 0.2.0, 0.1.7, 0.2.1, 0.1.8

Reported Oct 21, 2026 · Updated Oct 21, 2026

If this package is installed

Remove it, treat the machine (or CI runner) as compromised, and rotate every secret, token and key it could access — from a different, clean machine.

Details

Source: amazon-inspector (4344ab16d08a7e38ea2f32b406453f86d792c0fa17103125ad84ffd0e39c187f)
On `require "zzhelloworld_socktest"`, the library's top-level module body opens a TCP connection to the hardcoded remote endpoint 66.78.40.218:32768, reopens STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR onto that socket, and execs `/bin/sh -i`. Loading the gem gives the operator of that remote host an interactive shell on the installing machine, with no authentication and full process privileges. The gem's stated purpose is a trivial test library, which does not match a remote-shell capability. The destination is a bare IPv4 address unrelated to any declared publisher infrastructure.