etherdum.rb

Details

RubyGems runs this gem's native extension script `ext/etherdum.rb/extconf.rb` during `gem install`. The script exits without action on CI runners and sandboxes, based on CI environment variables, the hostname, the username and the working directory. It continues if the system uptime is over 30 minutes and the home directory holds `.ssh`, `.gitconfig`, `.npmrc`, `.gem/credentials` or `.bundle`. It then decodes a Base64 Ruby payload and forks twice into a detached process. After 20 to 40 minutes the payload downloads `http://45.138.12.177:8092/wgkit.tar.gz` to `/tmp/.w1.tgz` with `curl`, extracts it to `/tmp/.w1/`, runs `wg_install.sh` with `bash` and deletes both. The payload stores the URL XOR-encoded with the key `usv\x9a`. The Ruby code in `lib/` is a decoy. The RubyGems account `reqthrottle_3474` published this gem and 41 others with the same loader on 2026-10-05.

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## Source: amazon-inspector (a27b2952de0064d1745d45f18fc1ab974e48cfe185b8f41e90447265be1a880f)
The gem declares ext/etherdum.rb/extconf.rb as a native extension, but the accompanying C source is an empty Init stub and the Ruby library is a trivial word list with no cryptography. extconf.rb, which RubyGems runs automatically on `gem install`, base64-decodes and evals a Ruby payload that XOR-decodes a hardcoded URL (http://45.138.217.89:2/wgkit.tar.gz, overridable via WG_KIT_URL), downloads a tarball to /tmp/.w1.tgz, extracts it, and executes wg_install.sh over plaintext HTTP from a bare IP. Execution is wrapped in a double-forked, detached child with stdio redirected to /dev/null and a 20-40 minute sleep before firing. Anti-analysis gating skips CI environments, ephemeral/sandbox hostnames (uvm, firecracker, sandbox, vagrant, fc-vm), generated-looking usernames (uA\d+, sandbox/tester/analys/scanner), analysis paths (/opt/rubygems, /tmp, /workspace), machines with uptime under 1800 seconds, and systems lacking developer artifacts, requiring the presence of ~/.ssh, ~/.gem/credentials, ~/.bundle,.gitconfig, or.npmrc before executing. The package name typosquats 'ethereum' and the native-extension declaration exists solely to trigger extconf.rb execution. Installing this gem on a developer workstation yields remote code execution via an unpinned, attacker-controlled shell script.

## Source: ossf-package-analysis (f1b25fb6fb3736e9c6278ff71494e67195707322383b62234f163bbdebcdac19)
The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'etherdum.rb' @ 1.0.0 (rubygems) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

- The package executes one or more commands associated with malicious behavior.

Compromised versions (1)

• 1.0.0

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