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
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 |