A new threat targeting developers has been discovered by Sockets, with attackers using a technique called typosquatting to install malicious software and steal confidential data. Typosquatting is a form of cyber attack where attackers create fake websites or software packages with names similar to legitimate ones, in the hopes that users will make a typing mistake and download the malicious version.
This technique can also be used in the context of software repositories like NPM for Node.js and Pypi for Python. Attackers create packages with names closely resembling popular libraries, increasing the likelihood that developers will accidentally install the malicious package instead of the legitimate one. This puts developers at risk of unknowingly compromising their systems and exposing sensitive data.