Which versions of etherdum.rb are malicious?

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

How do I remediate etherdum.rb if I installed it?

etherdum.rb 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 etherdum.rb — how do I know if it already compromised me?

If etherdum.rb 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 etherdum.rb part of a known attack campaign?

Yes — etherdum.rb is associated with the IN-MAL-2026-021049 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 etherdum.rb across my projects, lockfiles, and CI pipelines?

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

Malicious package

etherdum.rbRubyGems

Advisory published Oct 5, 2026Updated Oct 6, 2026

etherdum.rb is a confirmed malicious RubyGems package (MAL-2026-17599) 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 etherdum.rb (RubyGems)

MAL-2026-17599

Immediate action

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

gem uninstall etherdum.rb

What this malware does

RubyGems runs this gem's native extension script ext/etherdum.rb/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 declares ext/etherdum.rb/extconf.rb as a native extension, but the accompanying C source is an empty Init stub and the Ruby library is a trivial word list with no cryptography. extconf.rb, which RubyGems runs automatically on gem install, base64-decodes and evals a Ruby payload that XOR-decodes a hardcoded URL (http://45.138.217.89:2/wgkit.tar.gz, overridable via WG_KIT_URL), downloads a tarball to /tmp/.w1.tgz, extracts it, and executes wg_install.sh over plaintext HTTP from a bare IP. Execution is wrapped in a double-forked, detached child with stdio redirected to /dev/null and a 20-40 minute sleep before firing. Anti-analysis gating skips CI environments, ephemeral/sandbox hostnames (uvm, firecracker, sandbox, vagrant, fc-vm), generated-looking usernames (uA\d+, sandbox/tester/analys/scanner), analysis paths (/opt/rubygems, /tmp, /workspace), machines with uptime under 1800 seconds, and systems lacking developer artifacts, requiring the presence of ~/.ssh, ~/.gem/credentials, ~/.bundle,.gitconfig, or.npmrc before executing. The package name typosquats 'ethereum' and the native-extension declaration exists solely to trigger extconf.rb execution. Installing this gem on a developer workstation yields remote code execution via an unpinned, attacker-controlled shell script.

The OpenSSF Package Analysis project identified 'etherdum.rb' @ 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)

a27b2952de0064d1745d45f18fc1ab974e48cfe185b8f41e90447265be1a880f

f1b25fb6fb3736e9c6278ff71494e67195707322383b62234f163bbdebcdac19

Detection & response playbook

Credential / info stealer

Find it
Search your lockfiles and build artifacts for etherdum.rb (version 1.0.0).
If you installed it — respond
etherdum.rb 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 etherdum.rb 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. etherdum.rb 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-2026-021049

References

Credits

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

Detect & block this

O3 blocks etherdum.rb-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

All malware advisories How O3 detects malware Vulnerability database