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PULSE DETAIL
The Contagious Interview campaign, attributed to North Korea, continues to target software developers through fake recruitment schemes. A new technique in their arsenal leverages Microsoft Visual Studio Code task files to execute malicious code when a project is opened. The report documents observations of this vector, presents GitHub-based discovery methods, highlights findings including a new malicious NPM package, and outlines detection opportunities. The campaign exploits VS Code's Task feature, using the runOptions property to automatically execute malicious shell commands when a workspace is opened. Various obfuscation techniques are employed, including hiding commands with whitespace and masquerading payloads as image or font files.
MITRE ATT&CK & Malware Families
| TYPE | INDICATOR | DESCRIPTION | CREATED | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| URL | https://www.jsonkeeper.com/b/QJZCG | — | 2026-01-23 | |
| URL | https://www.regioncheck.xyz/settings/linux?flag=8' | — | 2026-01-23 | |
| URL | https://www.regioncheck.xyz/settings/mac?flag=8' | — | 2026-01-23 | |
| URL | https://www.regioncheck.xyz/settings/windows?flag=8 | — | 2026-01-23 |