Contagious Interview: Tracking the VS Code Tasks Infection Vector

2026-01-20 Abstract Security

https://www.abstract.security/blog/contagious-interview-tracking-the-vs-code-tasks-infection-vector

Thumbnail for Contagious Interview: Tracking the VS Code Tasks Infection Vector

DPRK-attributed Contagious Interview operators are using fake recruitment and code-review projects to target software developers through GitHub-hosted repositories. The infection vector abuses Visual Studio Code workspace tasks, especially .vscode/tasks.json with runOn folderOpen, so shell commands can execute after a victim trusts and opens the project. The chain is tied to BeaverTail and InvisibleFerret deployment and overlaps with prior campaign patterns such as Vercel and Render payload hosting, JSON Keeper-style staging, and malicious NPM dependencies. The report documents hunting methods and variants including curl or wget downloaders, whitespace-padded task commands, and Node.js execution of disguised payloads stored as .dict, .woff2, .jpeg, or .svg files.

Indicators of Compromise

Type Value First Seen Last Seen
URL https://vscode-toolkit-bootstra… 2026-01-20 2026-02-26
URL https://vscodesettingstask.verc… 2026-01-20 2026-02-26
DOMAIN vscode-load.onrender.com 2026-01-20 2026-02-26
URL https://www.jsonkeeper.com/b/QJ… 2026-01-20 2026-01-20
URL https://www.regioncheck.xyz/set… 2026-01-20 2026-01-20
URL https://www.regioncheck.xyz/set… 2026-01-20 2026-01-20
URL https://www.regioncheck.xyz/set… 2026-01-20 2026-01-20
DOMAIN cluster0.exkxkun.mongodb.net 2026-01-20 2026-01-20
DOMAIN regioncheck.xyz 2026-01-20 2026-01-20

Related Actors

Related Reports

« Back