MAL-2026-17798 Malicious code in tron-trc20-utils (RubyGems)

The gem's extconf.rb contains a base64-encoded Ruby payload that is decoded and eval'd inside a detached double-forked child during gem install. The decoded code opens a TCP connection to 45.138.12.177:8089 and bridges it to /bin/sh, giving the remote operator an interactive shell on the installer's machine. Execution is gated by sandbox/CI-evasion checks: it skips if common CI environment variables are set, if the hostname or username matches sandbox/analyst patterns (uvm/firecracker/sandbox/vagrant/tester/analys/scanner), if the working directory is under /tmp, /opt/rubygems, or /workspace, if /proc/uptime is under 1800 seconds, and it additionally requires developer artifacts such as ~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.gem/credentials, ~/.npmrc, or ~/.bundle to be present. The gem's advertised identity does not match its contents: the gemspec names it tron-trc20-utils, the README is for bitcoin-rpc-lite, extconf.rb calls create_makefile('bitcoin_rpc_lite_native'), and the shipped library is a trivial stub exposing only VERSION, build_id, and healthy? — the install-time reverse shell is the package's only real functionality.

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'tron-trc20-utils' @ 0.9.1 (rubygems) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

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