Beware: GitHub's Fake Popularity Scam Tricking Developers into Downloading Malware

Researchers disclosed a campaign where attackers create malicious GitHub repositories mimicking popular projects and use search-manipulation techniques (automated commits, fake stars) to trick developers into downloading code that hides a downloader in VS Code project files; the downloader retrieves an encrypted 7z containing an executable (feedbackAPI.exe) linked to Keyzetsu-like clipper behavior that can hijack cryptocurrency transactions. The report also highlights related npm spam activity used to game a web3 'Tea protocol' testnet for token farming.