A critical security revelation has sent shockwaves through the cybersecurity community as researchers uncovered that easyjson, a widely adopted open-source Go package central to JSON serialization processes, is under complete control of developers based in Moscow who work for VK Group, one of Russia’s largest internet conglomerates. Security experts warn that this level of foreign control over critical infrastructure code presents a significant national security vulnerability, especially given the current geopolitical landscape and Russia’s documented history of cyber operations against Western targets. The discovery raises alarming questions about software supply chain security as easyjson is deeply embedded in critical infrastructure systems across U.S. Government networks, Fortune 500 enterprises, and cornerstone Cloud Native Computing Foundation projects. Their investigation revealed that over 85% of all commits to the easyjson repository came from Moscow-based developers affiliated with VK Group, a company currently under scrutiny for its connections to Russian state security services and subject to various international sanctions. Since easyjson generates Go code that handles data marshaling at the byte level, subtle manipulations could introduce information leakage channels without triggering security alerts. Security researchers at Hunted Labs emphasize that the risk isn’t necessarily about current code integrity but rather the continuous trusted access maintained by developers affiliated with entities under sanction. Cyber Security News is a Dedicated News Platform For Cyber News, Cyber Attack News, Hacking News & Vulnerability Analysis. Its specialized functionality in optimizing JSON encoding and decoding has made it an essential dependency in high-performance computing environments, particularly those requiring rapid data serialization for financial platforms and analytics systems. With years of experience under his belt in Cyber Security, he is covering Cyber Security News, technology and other news. Hunted Labs researchers identified this concerning ownership pattern while conducting security analysis for a U.S. Government client. The controlled positioning of easyjson presents several concerning exploitation scenarios that security professionals must consider.
This Cyber News was published on cybersecuritynews.com. Publication date: Wed, 07 May 2025 19:25:10 +0000