Description

Application security firm Checkmarx has confirmed that data from its private GitHub repositories was exposed by the LAPSUS$ threat group. According to the company, the breach is believed to be linked to a prior supply-chain incident involving Trivy, which has been associated with the TeamPCP hacking group. This earlier compromise allegedly allowed attackers to obtain credentials from downstream users, which were then used to gain unauthorized access to Checkmarx’s systems. On March 23, threat actors leveraged these stolen credentials to infiltrate the company’s GitHub environment and introduce malicious code into certain components. The attackers appear to have maintained access for an extended period, enabling further malicious activity. On April 22, they reportedly deployed compromised Docker images along with malicious VSCode and Open VSX extensions tied to Checkmarx’s KICS security scanner. These tampered artifacts were designed to extract sensitive data such as credentials, tokens, cryptographic keys, and configuration files from affected systems. Checkmarx noted that this activity was part of a broader attempt to exploit trusted development tools, increasing the potential impact across users who integrated these resources into their workflows. In a recent update, Checkmarx confirmed that the dataset published by LAPSUS$ on its extortion platform originated from this GitHub compromise. While earlier reports suggested the leak was limited to dark web forums, the data—estimated at 96GB—has also surfaced on publicly accessible platforms. The company emphasized that customer data is not stored within the affected repositories and is therefore unlikely to be part of the breach. A detailed forensic investigation is ongoing, and the impacted repository has been temporarily secured. Checkmarx has stated it will notify any affected parties if sensitive data exposure is confirmed and expects to release further findings soon.