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GitHub Removes 10,000 Malware Repositories After Public Exposure but Takes No Further Action

An investigation reveals that GitHub hosts thousands of repositories distributing trojanized ZIP archives, many of which have persisted for two years despite the platform's resources. The malicious repositories follow consistent patterns in README files, including specific headings and links to versioned archives hosted on githubusercontent.com. A detailed article and accompanying script published on Hacker News identified over 10,000 such repositories, prompting GitHub to delete only those specific entries. New repositories matching the same patterns continue to appear and remain active, with no additional proactive measures taken by the security team. The situation highlights questions about Microsoft's approach to automated detection and response on its subsidiary platform.

HabrTranslated from Russian

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Thousands of repositories on GitHub are actively distributing trojans through ZIP archives, and any user can locate them using the platform's built-in search without specialized tools. These repositories have remained online for at least two years even though GitHub possesses substantial financial resources, a dedicated security team, and access to artificial intelligence systems.

The malicious repositories share clear structural patterns. Each contains a README file with headings such as "## 馃摜 Download", "## 馃摜 Download Now", or "## 馃摜 Download the Software", followed by a direct link to a ZIP archive hosted on githubusercontent.com or github.com. The archives contain executable files that multiple antivirus engines on VirusTotal flag as malicious.

Researchers refined search queries to surface additional instances. Starting with path:readme.md "## 馃摜 Download" and adding terms such as ".zip" produced more targeted results. Further refinement using regular expressions for versioned archive links, such as /raw\.githubusercontent\.com\/.*\d+\.\d+\.zip/, isolated repositories that match the malware distribution pattern.

One month earlier, a detailed article describing the scheme and a script that located 10,000 matching repositories were published on Hacker News. The post received significant attention from other security outlets. In response, GitHub deleted the 10,000 repositories identified by the script. No additional repositories matching the same patterns have been removed since, even though new ones continue to appear and the original article remains publicly available.

The limited response raises questions about internal processes at Microsoft, which owns GitHub. Despite having thousands of employees and tools such as Copilot, the company has not deployed sustained detection efforts against this ongoing malware campaign.

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