Hackers exploit SourceForge to hide crypto miners in Microsoft Office packages

A newly uncovered malware campaign is turning SourceForge’s infrastructure into a launchpad for infection, leveraging the platform’s developer-friendly tools to trick users into downloading malicious crypto software.

According to researchers at Kaspersky, the scheme specifically targets crypto users by disguising malware as office-related downloads — complete with bloated installers, password-protected archives, and layers of obfuscation that eventually deliver a crypto miner and a ClipBanker to hijack crypto transactions.

In a blog post on Tuesday, April 8, researchers said the attackers set up a fake project on SourceForge called “officepackage,” made to look like Microsoft Office add-ins copied from GitHub.  While the project page itself might look normal, the real trap was its auto-generated subdomain “officepackage.sourceforge.io,” the researchers noted.