GitHub breach traced to poisoned VS Code extension

Online code repository firm GitHub says a recent breach of its internal data stemmed from a staff member downloading a “poisoned” VS Code extension.

The Microsoft-owned firm first disclosed in the early hours of this morning that it was investigating unauthorized access to its internal repositories.

Since then, GitHub has shared that the breach has only affected internal GitHub repositories.

It added, “The attacker’s current claims of ~3,800 repositories are directionally consistent with our investigation so far.”

The breach involves a malicious VS Code extension downloaded from Microsoft’s VS Code extension marketplace. VS Code stands for Visual Studio Code, and the marketplace offers various tools and applications for code editors to download.

The hacking group claiming to have breached GitHub’s repositories is TeamPCP, which has been linked to the Mini Shai Halud supply chain attack that impacted OpenAI, as well as a number of other supply chain attacks targeting developer software.

The group is selling the roughly-4,000 private repositories on the Breached hacking forum for no less than $50,000 while stressing that it will not accept any “low ball offers.”

It said, “This is not a ransom, we do not care about extorting GitHub.” The data on its end will supposedly be “shred” after the sale, and if it can’t find a buyer, TeamPCP said it will leak the data for free.

GitHub says it has removed ‘malicious extension’

GitHub claims it “removed the malicious extension version, isolated the endpoint, and begun incident response immediately.”

“Critical secrets were rotated yesterday and overnight with the highest-impact credentials prioritized first,” the firm said, adding that it will continue to monitor the situation.

The reception to the incident hasn’t been forgiving. Users noted longstanding complaints against former Microsoft and GitHub executives that have asked for solutions to malware-ridden downloads within the VS Code extension marketplace.

This complaint was levied against GitHub’s former CEO two years ago.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao warned, “If you have API keys in your code, even private repos, now is the time to double check and change them…”

CEO of coding firm Treehouse, Ryan Carson, similarly warned, “If you have ANY private repos with plain text secrets or sensitive documents/architectures, immediately rotate your secrets.”

Crypto security expert Taylor Monahan added to Zhao’s statement, and said that you should get your API keys “out of your repos.”

“Your biggest risk is not this. It’s your own devs getting hit by one of these wormy motherfucking supply chains and leaking all those secrets,” Monahan said.

Second GitHub leak in days

Software firm Grafana also claimed earlier this week that it witnessed unauthorised access to its GitHub repositories.

It claims the attackers “downloaded our codebase,” before issuing “a ransom demand under threat of data disclosure.”

In this case, Grafana claims the breach also stemmed from the supply chain attack associated with the Mini Shai-Hulud campaign.

It said, “We performed analysis and quickly rotated a significant number of GitHub workflow tokens, but a missed token led to the attackers gaining access to our GitHub repositories. A subsequent review confirmed that a specific GitHub workflow we originally deemed not impacted had, in fact, been compromised.”

In 2024, leaked passwords and site code stemming from Binance were viewable on GitHub for months before they were eventually taken down.

The exchange said the leaks were capable of causing “severe financial harm,” and that the upload of its data was never authorized.

Protos has reached out to GitHub for comment and will update this piece should we hear anything back.