seed-phrase-validator

Details

**Severity:** Critical

**Affected versions:** `= 0.9.1`

## Source: amazon-inspector (fb8d12a066c24d672bf16efe57267c46c727592ee21beb0e2accb3bb6e4bfb3a)
The gem declares a native extension but ships no C/C++/Rust source. extconf.rb exists solely to execute at `gem install` time. It decodes a base64-encoded Ruby payload and runs it via eval inside a detached fork (Process.setsid, randomized sleep of 1200+rand(1200) seconds) so execution survives the install process. The decoded payload opens a TCP socket to the hardcoded bare IP 45.138.12.177:8089 and bridges it to /bin/sh, giving an interactive remote shell on the installer's host. Execution is gated by anti-analysis checks that skip CI runners, ephemeral/sandbox hosts, generated usernames, analysis paths, and low-uptime machines, firing only when developer artifacts such as ~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.npmrc, ~/.gem/credentials, or ~/.bundle are present on the host. Package identity is inconsistent: the gem is named seed-phrase-validator, the README is titled bitcoin-rpc-lite, and the makefile target is bitcoin_rpc_lite_native, with no matching native sources in the tree.

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Credit: [OpenSSF](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages) ([source](https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/ff41f6680a0ebbef2268cdb5daf253d4b400cb05/osv/malicious/rubygems/seed-phrase-validator/MAL-2026-17794.json))

**References:**
- https://github.com/ossf/malicious-packages/blob/ff41f6680a0ebbef2268cdb5daf253d4b400cb05/osv/malicious/rubygems/seed-phrase-validator/MAL-2026-17794.json
- https://rubygems.org/gems/seed-phrase-validator/versions/0.9.1
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-vfwp-3q5f-qqrh

Compromised versions (1)

• = 0.9.1

Any computer that installed or ran a compromised version should be considered fully compromised. Rotate every secret on that machine from a clean environment.