N. Korea Group Behind Multiple Open Source Supply-Chain Attacks: Amazon
Amazon’s recent report attributing a series of compromises of open source software libraries to a North Korea-backed threat group encapsulates many of the expanding cyber risks increasingly facing developers, from the growing use of generative AI by bad actors and targeting of code repositories to financially focused attacks by nation-state hackers and the abuse of […]
Amazon has reported that a North Korean-backed threat group, known by various names such as Sapphire Sleet, Stardust Chollima, BlueNoroff, CageyChameleon, and Alluring Pisces, is responsible for multiple supply chain attacks on open source software libraries. These attacks involve placing malicious code into widely used packages within the npm repository, potentially affecting countless organizations that depend on those packages.
In their report, Amazon's CISO, CJ Moses, noted that the group has increased the volume and sophistication of these supply chain attacks, driven largely by the DPRK-linked threat actors.
Supply chain attacks are becoming increasingly popular among cybercriminals, as compromising a small number of popular packages can provide access to thousands of downstream operations simultaneously. This method is considered more efficient than targeting organizations individually. North Korea's cyber operations are now considered a central pillar of its asymmetric national strategy, as they utilize cybercrime, espionage, and digital disruption to sustain the regime's economy and strategic leverage despite facing chronic resource shortages and diplomatic isolation.
Recent compromises by the North Korean group include the npm typo-crypto package in March 2025, the debug and chalk packages in September 2025, and the axios package in March 2025. In each case, the threat actor used social engineering techniques against the package maintainers and then published a software update containing malicious code. When organizations automatically updated their packages, they inadvertently introduced the malicious code as well.
These attacks highlight the evolving nature of attackers' tradecraft, including the division of single malicious workflows across multiple ordinary packages to evade detection. Generative AI is also being increasingly used by attackers to generate code and scale their campaigns, making it more challenging for defenders to detect malicious packages.
As developers hold valuable credentials and have direct access to source code, they have become attractive targets for bad actors, who exploit the trust placed in open source packages to distribute malware and loaders.
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