mitmproxy

Audit of 25 Package Managers Shows Only Two Verify Every Package's Integrity Against Compromised Repositories

A comprehensive test by Trail of Bits examined 25 popular package managers to determine whether they detect malicious code substituted by a compromised repository. The study found that fewer than half verify package integrity by default using lockfiles, and only two managers check the cryptographic hash of every downloaded package. Most managers either require manual configuration, use hashes insecurely, or lack any integrity checks even when lockfiles are present. Signature verification is even rarer, with only Go performing checks by default. The research used a Docker and mitmproxy testbed to simulate attacks while preserving realistic conditions. Results highlight significant gaps in supply-chain protections across ecosystems including JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Rust, and others. The findings also discuss limitations of current lockfile designs and emerging improvements in several communities.

Yandex Disk Data Center Incidents Leave Photos and Videos Inaccessible, Custom Recovery Tool Emerges

Following incidents at Yandex data centers in Sasovo and Vladimir, large numbers of photos and videos stored on Yandex Disk became unavailable for normal download. The company attributed the restrictions to load reduction, yet analysis indicates permanent loss of certain data clusters with no confirmed backups. Photos remain partially recoverable through lower-resolution S3 copies such as XXXL and XXL, while videos suffer from missing byte ranges that produce truncated or corrupted files. A researcher developed a specialized tool using mitmproxy to intercept browser requests and download available file variants in parallel streams. The utility also attempts block-by-block video retrieval to salvage whatever segments remain accessible. Users are warned that continued use of the tool may violate service terms and risk account suspension. The developer advises downloading data immediately rather than waiting for potential further degradation.

OTUS Publishes September Digest of Free Lessons on Linux Administration, PostgreSQL, CI/CD and Infrastructure Security

OTUS has released a new digest listing free September webinars aimed at infrastructure engineers, DevOps specialists and system administrators. The program covers practical topics including Linux server configuration, PostgreSQL 18 performance tuning, high-availability clusters with Patroni, CI/CD pipelines in GitLab, eBPF observability and infrastructure security practices. All sessions are delivered by practicing OTUS instructors who share real-world production experience. Separate tracks address RAID and LVM management, GPO policies, release management in 1C environments, Go profiling, mitmproxy traffic analysis and responsible use of AI tools for incident investigation and code review. The webinars run throughout September at 19:00 or 20:00 Moscow time and require only free registration. The digest also includes sessions on career growth from tech lead to CTO and effective responsibility distribution for team leads.

GitHub Copilot Traffic Analysis via MITM Proxy Exposes Prompt Context Handling and Local SQLite Session Storage

A detailed reverse-engineering study placed GitHub Copilot behind an mitmproxy instance to inspect all network requests made by Visual Studio Code. The analysis revealed that Copilot performs OAuth token exchange, model availability checks, and intent classification before any user input occurs. Prompts sent to the model include context from recently edited files, even when inline suggestions are disabled for sensitive extensions such as .env. Copilot maintains a local SQLite database named session-store.db that records every user prompt, LLM response, repository, and branch worked on. The extension also exposes a session_store_sql tool allowing the model to run read-only SQL queries against this history using the Copilot Chronicle skill. These findings highlight how AI coding assistants manage context, authentication, and persistent local state.