Cybercriminals Develop Novel Method to Conceal Malware in Ethereum Smart Contracts

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered an ingenious technique employed by malicious actors to conceal harmful code within smart contracts on the Ethereum network. This method, dubbed “code outsourcing,” leverages a feature in the Solidity programming language that permits the invocation of functions from other contracts. Hackers are dividing their malicious code into smaller segments and deploying them across numerous contracts. Subsequently, they create a single, master contract that calls upon these smaller segments in the correct sequence, triggering the execution of the malware. This approach complicates the detection of malware because the complete malicious code is not present within a single contract but is distributed across the network. Moreover, attackers employ techniques to obscure the nature of the code, such as encryption and obfuscation, making its analysis more difficult. This tactic could result in funds being stolen from user wallets or the control of other smart contracts being compromised. Users and smart contract developers are advised to exercise caution and carefully review the code of the contracts they interact with.