Which versions of bitcion are malicious?

The following RubyGems versions of bitcion are flagged malicious: 1.0.0. Treat any of these as compromised.

How do I remediate bitcion if I installed it?

bitcion is built to steal secrets, so assume every credential the build or runtime could read is compromised. Remove it from your project and lockfile, then rotate ALL exposed secrets — npm/registry tokens, cloud keys, CI/CD secrets, SSH keys, and any .env values — from a known-clean machine. Audit logs for unauthorized use of those credentials.

I already installed bitcion — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If bitcion was installed, its post-install payload may already have run. Removing the package does not undo that — check outbound connections and credential use from the install window onward.

Is bitcion part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — bitcion is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-021054 campaign. Packages in the same campaign often share infrastructure and payloads, so check whether any related packages are also in your dependency tree.

How do I find bitcion across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for bitcion (version 1.0.0).

Malicious package

bitcionRubyGems

Advisory published Oct 5, 2026Updated Oct 6, 2026

bitcion is a confirmed malicious RubyGems package (MAL-2026-17583) that steals credentials and exfiltrates sensitive data (malicious version 1.0.0). Do not install it — remove it immediately and rotate any exposed credentials.

Malicious code in bitcion (RubyGems)

MAL-2026-17583

Immediate action

Remove the package, then rotate any secrets the build/runtime could reach.

gem uninstall bitcion

What this malware does

RubyGems runs this gem's native extension script ext/bitcion/extconf.rb during gem install. The script exits without action on CI runners and sandboxes, based on CI environment variables, the hostname, the username and the working directory. It continues if the system uptime is over 30 minutes and the home directory holds .ssh, .gitconfig, .npmrc, .gem/credentials or .bundle. It then decodes a Base64 Ruby payload and forks twice into a detached process. After 20 to 40 minutes the payload downloads http://45.138.12.177:8092/wgkit.tar.gz to /tmp/.w1.tgz with curl, extracts it to /tmp/.w1/, runs wg_install.sh with bash and deletes both. The payload stores the URL XOR-encoded with the key usv\x9a. The Ruby code in lib/ is a decoy. The RubyGems account reqthrottle_3474 published this gem and 41 others with the same loader on 2026-10-05.

The gem advertises itself as a BIP-39 mnemonic word list but ships a non-functional native extension (ext/bitcion/bitcion.c is a 46-byte empty Init_Bitcion stub) whose only purpose is to make RubyGems invoke ext/bitcion/extconf.rb at gem install time. extconf.rb base64-decodes a Ruby payload and eval()s it inside a detached forked child. The payload reconstructs the URL http://45.138.128.177:8092/wgkit.tar.gz by XOR-decoding a hex blob with the key 'usv\x9a', downloads the tarball to /tmp/.w1.tgz over plain HTTP, extracts it, and executes /tmp/.w1/wg_install.sh via bash. Execution is gated on anti-analysis checks: negative signals skip the drop (CI environment variables; hostnames matching uvm/firecracker/sandbox/vagrant; usernames matching uA#/sandbox/tester/analys/scanner; cwd under /tmp or /opt/rubygems; machine uptime under 30 minutes) and positive developer signals are required (presence of ~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, ~/.npmrc, ~/.gem/credentials, ~/.bundle). A randomized 20-40 minute sleep is inserted before the fetch to further evade sandbox observation. The combination of hollow native stub, obfuscated bare-IP control-plane over plain HTTP, forked/detached execution, and developer-vs-sandbox targeting is intentional supply-chain malware delivering arbitrary attacker-controlled code onto the installer's host.

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'bitcion' @ 1.0.0 (rubygems) as malicious.

It is considered malicious because:

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

Malicious versions

1 flagged

1.0.0

Indicators of compromise (SHA-256)

2227467459663a7608a52405af03fbfbf6f9a25a02dcac5490c29480a846b61d

ef0f9a0614561d3fa298e8a94e27e744b75464bd1ef2c800b3a9a02b427d1111

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for bitcion (version 1.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
bitcion is built to steal secrets, so assume every credential the build or runtime could read is compromised. Remove it from your project and lockfile, then rotate ALL exposed secrets — npm/registry tokens, cloud keys, CI/CD secrets, SSH keys, and any .env values — from a known-clean machine. Audit logs for unauthorized use of those credentials.
Did it already run?
If bitcion was installed, its post-install payload may already have run. Removing the package does not undo that — check outbound connections and credential use from the install window onward.

Frequently asked questions

No. bitcion on RubyGems has been identified as a malicious package (version 1.0.0 flagged). It should be removed immediately — do not install or keep it in your dependency tree.

Campaign

IN-MAL-2026-021054

References

Credits

Amazon Inspector · finder
OpenSSF: Package Analysis · finder
SafeDep · finder

Detect & block this

O3 blocks bitcion-class packages before install and in CI — and if it already ran, its runtime egress monitoring catches the credential exfiltration and severs the channel.

Malware detection Runtime egress monitoring

Explore

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