On the 16th of July, at around 8pm UTC+2, a malicious AUR package was uploaded to the AUR. Two other malicious packages were uploaded by the same user a few hours later. These packages were installing a script coming from the same GitHub repository that was identified as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT).
The affected malicious packages are:
- librewolf-fix-bin
- firefox-patch-bin
- zen-browser-patched-bin
The Arch Linux team addressed the issue as soon as they became aware of the situation. As of today, 18th of July, at around 6pm UTC+2, the offending packages have been deleted from the AUR.
We strongly encourage users that may have installed one of these packages to remove them from their system and to take the necessary measures in order to ensure they were not compromised.
According to the gamingonlinux discord, the following packages are also suspected to be compromised:
https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/minecraft-cracked/
https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/ttf-ms-fonts-all/
https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/vesktop-bin-patched/
https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/ttf-all-ms-fonts/
If you have any of these packages installed, immediately delete it and check your system processes for a process called systemd-initd (this is the RAT).
Here is an analysis of the malicious payload: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/d9f0df8da6d66aaae024bdca26a228481049595279595e96d5ec615392430d67
Yes you literally do when you install the package. You’re thinking of building the package.
makepkg -iwill prompt for root.pacman -Urequires root. Both will execute theinstall()function of thePKGBUILDas root.Not every PKGBUILD contains a .install file. So again, it is not inherently the case that you’re “literally executing random shell scripts by strangers as root.” slackness has it right that most people probably don’t read the install files, but it seems to me that their prevalence in the AUR is overstated here.