Frankenstein malware stitched together from code of others disguised as PyPI package

A malicious package discovered in the Python Package Index (PyPI) is the latest example of what threat hunters from Kroll called the continued "democratization of cybercrime," with the bad guys creating malware variants from the code of others. It reflects the as-a-service trend in ransomware, distributed denial-of-service ( …

[teknopaul]

All developers Copy paste

If you find that strange, you have not coded anything. All code uses libraries so much so that they re usually dynamically bound to facilitate copying code with even having to read it. Statically bound stuff like virus code will use copy paste more. Natch.

If we didn't copy paste and every bit of code ever written was originally we would still be writing binary.

Re: "The malware developer also includes an embedded "Snake" game that is likely directly copied from a GitHub repository and doesn't seem to serve a purpose, another proof point of the irregular sourcing of the code."

I actually did exactly this too. I was writing a mock Nokia mobile phone test utility ofr a wap site we were building (showing my age) and I embedded a copy of Snakneot to it just for laughs, probably cost our qa a few hours ;)

[Esoteric Eric]

Didn't realise I needed to be a blacksmith to be a theif

But then I suppose all the top thieves hammer their own crowbars

[BPontius]

To copy or steal

This is the essence of most virus, malware and legitimate software. Majority of viruses and malware found are just variations of originals, the same happens in the marketplace for software and operating systems. The old adage; "Good artists copy, great artists steal", MS DOS was an altered version of 86-DOS, Lisa and Mac O/S was based on the XEROX Parc Alto computer (never released to the public), Viscalc for Apple II was the first spreadsheet...etc. The same can be said of the economy in general, someone comes up with a new idea and soon it is copied by others.