Malicious VS Code Extensions Are Stealing Crypto Wallets

VS Code is a free code editor made by Microsoft, used by millions of developers worldwide. A pair of malicious extensions named "Solidity Pro" lurked inside it, quietly draining credentials, crypto wallets, and API keys from anyone who installed them, according to The Hacker News.

The extensions targeted Ethereum developers by impersonating legitimate coding tools. Early versions quietly contacted external servers to download and run hidden code. Later versions upgraded to full information-stealing malware, capable of harvesting browser profiles, cryptocurrency wallet vaults, SSH private keys, GitHub and GitLab tokens, AWS credentials, OpenAI API keys, and more. Everything collected was sent directly to the attackers via a Telegram bot.

What made this campaign particularly difficult to catch was deliberate patience. The malicious code sat dormant for hours or days after installation. By the time it activated, both the user and automated security scanners had already moved on. The attackers also released clean versions in between to build trust, making detection even harder.

The extensions have been removed from the Open VSX marketplace, but the GitHub repository for one of them remains publicly accessible.

This campaign shares tactics with WhiteCobra, a known threat group previously linked to distributing credential-stealing malware through VS Code extensions.

What you should do: If you have installed any Solidity-related VS Code extensions recently, remove them immediately and audit your installed extension list. Rotate any API keys, tokens, or passwords stored in your development environment. Check your crypto wallet for unauthorised transactions.

OpenAI has quietly flagged its upcoming AI model, Astra, as potentially dangerous, according to Help Net Security.

Under OpenAI's internal safety framework, a model reaches "critical" cybersecurity capability when it can independently find unknown vulnerabilities in secure systems or plan and carry out sophisticated attacks with little human guidance. Early testing of Astra showed strong enough results that OpenAI could not rule this out.

In response, the company has paused certain Astra activities, introduced isolated testing environments, restricted the model's network access, and added monitoring systems to catch dangerous behaviour before deployment.

Before Astra goes public, government agencies and independent safety organisations will evaluate its capabilities. This is the same approach OpenAI used when its models began showing advanced biology-related capabilities in 2025.

What you should do: No action is required today. This is a proactive step by OpenAI. Worth watching, though — how the AI industry handles models with offensive cyber capabilities will shape the threat landscape for everyone.

CVE ID not confirmed in source — check the original advisory before acting.

What Connective eID is: A browser extension used by over two million people in Belgium to authenticate their identity and sign documents digitally with their national electronic ID card. It is used by eight of Belgium's ten largest banks and more than 60 government agencies.

What it is: The extension failed to verify which website was allowed to communicate with it. Any website — including one running a malicious ad — could interact with the application without the user knowing.

Who's at risk: Anyone in Belgium who had the extension installed before late July 2026. Exposure required only visiting a compromised or malicious webpage.

CVSS: Not yet scored — treat as High until confirmed.

Root cause: The application did not validate the origin (the source website) of incoming requests. It also allowed web pages to customise the text inside authentication pop-up boxes without displaying which site was making the request. Users had no way to tell a legitimate prompt from a fake one.

Attack vector: A malicious website silently triggers an authentication pop-up using official-looking text. The user enters their PIN, which the extension sends back to the requesting site. The attacker uses that PIN to generate unauthorised approval tokens and forge legally binding electronic signatures whenever the victim's physical eID card is in a card reader. A separate flaw — in how the extension handled local files — allowed remote code execution (RCE — when an attacker runs their own code on someone else's machine) just by having the user visit a webpage after downloading a disguised file.

Detection strategies: Unexpected authentication pop-ups while browsing unfamiliar sites. Unsigned documents appearing in your Belgian government portal history. Any prompt asking for your eID PIN outside of a known, intentional login flow.

Recommended actions:

1. Confirm your Connective eID extension is updated to the late July 2026 release or later.
2. If you signed documents or entered your PIN in the weeks before the patch, report this to your bank and check your CSAM.be account for unexpected activity.
3. Treat any eID PIN prompt on an unfamiliar website as a phishing attempt — cancel and close the tab.

GitHub's Dependabot is a built-in tool that automatically scans your project's dependencies — the third-party packages your code relies on — and alerts you when something is outdated or dangerous. Until now, its malware detection only covered npm (a package registry for JavaScript developers). That changed this month, according to Help Net Security.

Dependabot now draws from OpenSSF's malicious-packages database, a public feed covering eight ecosystems including PyPI (Python), Maven (Java), RubyGems, NuGet (.NET), Go, crates.io (Rust), and PHP Composer.

If you use GitHub for any development work, enabling Dependabot malware alerts takes one minute and adds an automatic watchdog across your entire dependency chain.

What you should do: Go to your GitHub repository or organisation settings, find the Security section, and enable Dependabot malware alerts. It is free and takes effect immediately.

As of 2 August 2026, the EU's AI Office and national authorities began actively enforcing the AI Act — the world's first broad legal framework regulating artificial intelligence — according to Help Net Security.

Fines run up to €15 million or 3% of global annual turnover. The AI Office has launched a public complaints tool, a whistleblower channel for insiders, and a downstream complaints process for businesses building on top of others' AI systems. For most people and small businesses, the most important thing to know is that the mechanism now exists: if you believe an AI system has caused harm, there is a formal place to report it.