Peacenotwar

peacenotwar is a piece of malware, which has been characterized as protestware,^[1] created by Brandon Nozaki Miller. In March 2022, it was added as a dependency in an update for node-ipc, a common JavaScript dependency.

Background

Between 7 March and 8 March 2022, Brandon Nozaki Miller, the maintainer of the node-ipc package on the npm package registry, released two updates containing malicious code targeting systems in Russia and Belarus (CVE-2022-23812). This code recursively overwrites all files on the user's system drive with heart emojis.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} A week later, Miller added the peacenotwar module as a dependency to node-ipc.^[10] The function of peacenotwar was to create a text file titled WITH-LOVE-FROM-AMERICA.txt on the desktop of affected machines, containing a message in protest of the Russo-Ukrainian War; it also imports a dependency on a package (npm colors package) that would result in a Denial of Service (DoS) to any server using it.^[11][12]

Impact

Because node-ipc was a common software dependency, it compromised several other projects which relied upon it.^[13]

Among the affected projects was Vue.js, which required node-ipc as a dependency but didn't specify a version. Some users of Vue.js were affected if the dependency was fetched from specific packages. Unity Hub 3.1 was also affected, but a patch was issued on the same day as the release.^[14][15]

See also

• npm left-pad incident
• Supply chain attack
• Hacktivism
• Reactions to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Anti-Russian sentiment

References