CAPEC-693

Detailed Abstraction Level
Meta — Very abstract, high-level category
Standard — Specific enough to understand
Detailed — Tied to specific technique Stable MITRE CAPEC Status
Stable — Fully reviewed and complete
Draft — Under development
Incomplete — Partially defined
Deprecated — No longer recommended
Obsolete — Replaced by another CAPEC Likelihood: Medium Severity: High
StarJacking

Description

An adversary spoofs software popularity metadata to deceive users into believing that a maliciously provided package is widely used and originates from a trusted source.

Prerequisites

Identification of a popular open-source package whose popularity metadata is to be used for the malicious package.

Mitigations

Before downloading open-source packages, perform precursory metadata checks to determine the author(s), frequency of updates, when the software was last updated, and if the software is widely leveraged.

Look for conflicting or non-unique repository references to determine if multiple packages share the same repository reference.

Reference vulnerability databases to determine if the software contains known vulnerabilities.

Only download open-source packages from reputable package managers.

After downloading open-source packages, ensure integrity values have not changed.

Before executing or incorporating the package, leverage automated testing techniques (e.g., static and dynamic analysis) to determine if the software behaves maliciously.

Skills Required

[Low] Ability to provide a package to a package manager and associate a popular package's source code repository URL.