RubyGems, the standard package manager for the Ruby programming language, has temporarily paused account sign ups following what has been described as a "major malicious attack." "We're dealing with a major malicious attack on RubyGems right now," Maciej Mensfeld, senior product manager for software supply chain security at Mend.io, said in a post on X. "Signups are paused for the time being.

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a new campaign dubbed GemStuffer that has targeted the RubyGems repository with more than 150 gems that use the registry as a data exfiltration channel rather than for malware distribution. "The packages do not appear designed for mass developer compromise," Socket said. "Many have little or no download activity, and the payloads are repetitive,