Glassworm Returns: Invisible Unicode Malware Found in 150+ GitHub Repositories

The Glassworm threat actor has returned with a new wave of supply chain attacks, compromising 150+ GitHub repositories, npm packages, and VS Code extensions using invisible Unicode characters. The technique hides malicious payloads inside what appear to be empty strings using Private Use Area (PUA) Unicode characters, which are then decoded and passed to eval() at runtime. Past payloads used Solana as a delivery channel to steal tokens and credentials. The March 2026 wave shows signs of AI-assisted cover commits that mimic legitimate project activity, making visual detection nearly impossible. Detection requires dedicated malware scanning tools rather than standard code review or linting.