bad_actor_poc VS security

I'm not suggesting people in this thread are wrong, but working for a security company gives a slightly different perspective. For example, there's really nothing stopping a rogue crate from exporting your private keys, just by using VS code. I wasn't thinking about this when I helped write that proposal, though.

Having less tools that can do things like https://github.com/lucky/bad_actor_poc is a relief.

Code execution that may not be so obvious could be the preLaunchTask that runs before starting the app and can run a build that has an extra task executing arbitrary code unrelated to the build. What about the npm module that steals your crypto wallet private keys? Make a simple edit and a malicious linter is loaded from the node_modules folder, instead of the one that is installed globally. Even reading the code can be deceptive, attackers can use Unicode hacks to hide malicious code in plain sight. Heck, you don't even have to open any source code to be owned.

https://github.com/lucky/bad_actor_poc is one example

It turns out that because Rust can execute code at compile time, simply opening a Rust source file in an editor with code completion support can cause a virus to be installed on my computer. Apparently I can't trust anything but basic text editors anymore...

I can't trust language package managers either, especially non-mainstream ones... Nim package manager used to not validate secure connections by default until very recently. Lazarus doesn't even use a secure protocol (uses http://, not https://). Chicken Scheme doesn't either. It's time for a new mantra "don't roll your own software downloaders" to complement "don't roll your own crypto"...

Because despite all the talk about "SuPpLy ChAiN aTtAcKs" people still do things like intentionally not verifying HTTPS certificates... I swear, we should just start saying "don't roll your own software downloader" as often as we say "don't roll your own crypto", and leave writing software downloaders to security professionals...