GitHub projects are being targeted by malicious actions in an apparent attempt to trap this researcher
- Malicious commits found in Exo Labs’ GitHub account
- They were submitted to and referred to a Texas-based security researcher
- The malware doesn’t exist and the researcher claims someone is impersonating it
Someone broke into GitHub projects, injected malicious code, and apparently tried to discredit a researcher by blaming him for the hack.
Executives at AI and machine learning startup Exo Labs have warned that someone has attempted to make new changes to the code in the company’s GitHub repository.
The added code looked “innocent” and was titled “clarify mlx requirement for deepseek models,” and to hide the code from examination, the attacker converted it to a number equivalent. However, the submission was analyzed before being pushed to the repository, and it was soon discovered that it was trying to connect to the evildojo[dot]com, to download the phase one payload. The researchers determined that there was no payload on the server and that it simply returned a 404 error.
Hidden risk
The researchers dug deeper into the attack and discovered that the evildojo domain, as well as the GitHub accounts involved in the attack, all pointed to a researcher named Mike Bell – a security researcher and white-hat hacker from Texas. He denies any involvement in the attack and claims it was all an attempt to ruin his good name.
“Not me, an impersonator. Note that the account has been deleted. I’m very sorry that people are getting into trouble with me,” BleepingComputer quoted Bell as saying about the attacks. “There was never any charge… why do people continue to assume there was?” he added.
When questioned about the incident on
Given that anyone can create a GitHub account pretending to be someone else, and since no malicious payload or damage has been caused, the idea of a smear campaign seems plausible — especially since Bell is actively involved in the cybersecurity community, albeit from the other side.
Via BleepingComputer
